NAVALNY TO RETURN TO RUSSIA DESPITE THREATS

MOSCOW Less than six months after Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was poisoned in what he has said was a state-ordered attack, he announced Wednesday that he is returning to russia, where he could find himself behind bars soon after his arrival.

Navalny has been recovering in Germany since he became ill during an Aug. 20 flight to Moscow from Tomsk. Navalny spent more than two weeks in a coma in a Berlin hospital. he is planning his return for Jan. 17.

“(russian President vladimir) Putin, who gave the order to kill me, is screaming in his bunker and tells his servants to do everything to prevent me from returning,” Navalny said in an Instagram post. “Servants act as usual, fabricating new criminal cases against me. But I’m not very interested in what they are doing. russia is my country, Moscow is my city, and I miss them.”