Putin critic navalny detained in moscow

Alexei Navalny, the russian opposition leader, was detained at a Moscow airport Sunday as he returned to his home country for the first time since he was poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent and airlifted to Germany for treatment.

russian prison officials later confirmed that Navalny would be detained for 48 hours until a court ruled on his possible arrest.

Some five months after he fell into a coma on a plane from Siberia to Moscow, Navalny returned to russia to defy the Kremlin’s threats to jail him under one of several active criminal cases widely regarded as politically motivated.

After he got off the plane at Moscow’s main airport Sunday, Navalny told reporters that he was “absolutely happy” to be back home, which he described as “the best day in my life in the past five months.”

“I’m not afraid and none of us should be afraid,” he said moments before he was detained at passport control and not seen since.

His wife came out to the media scrum later this evening but refused to comment.

Kira yarmysh, Navalny’s spokesman, said that neither the politician nor his lawyer were given any document sanctioning the detention.

russia authorities raised the stakes ahead of Navalny’s arrival by announcing a new criminal investigation against him while prison authorities said earlier this month that they had issued an arrest warrant for him, accusing him of failing to report to his probation officer.

The Kremlin’s efforts to disrupt a possible hero’s welcome for Navalny were obvious Sunday as his plane was abruptly diverted to another Moscow airport that was shut down for an hour for no apparent reason.

Security was tightened at Vnukovo airport and authorities warned Navalny’s supporters of fines and detentions for “unsanctioned gatherings” at the terminal.

Two dozen police vans were lined outside the terminal, and the airport swarmed with Navalny supporters and plainclothes police from early afternoon.

An hour before Navalny’s planned arrival, several dozen riot police moved in to push back the crowds from the entrance to arrivals and out into the cold in scenes reminiscent of police violence in neighbouring Belarus a few months earlier.

Lyubov Sobol, Navalny’s close ally, and several other people were detained by the police at an airport café earlier. Konstantin Kotov, an opposition activist who was the first person in russia to serve time in prison over repeated violations of a new law on public assembly, was among those waiting to see Navalny.

Kotov was himself detained by the police shortly after he spoke to The Telegraph.