From poisoning to prison

Here’s looking back at Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s eventful journey from falling sick mid-air last August to being rushed to a Berlin hospital to getting arrested in Moscow on Sunday

"This is ultimate lawlessness."

— ALEXEI NAVALNY, on his hastily organised courtroom hearing at a police station on the outskirts of the Russian capital

THE STORY SO FAR

TAKEN ILL ON A FLIGHT

Navalny is hospitalised in Omsk, Siberia on August 20 after losing consciousness on a flight to Moscow from Tomsk. His team claims he’s been poisoned

RUSHED TO BERLIN

Put into a medically induced coma, he's moved two days later to Charite hospital in Berlin at his family's request

WAS HE POISONED?

German doctors say tests indicate poisoning. On August 27, Russia’s judiciary says a probe found no proof of poisoning

IT’S NOVICHOK

Berlin says tests carried out by a German army lab found evidence that he was a victim of poisoning by Novichok, a Soviet-era chemical weapon

RUSSIA FACES FLAK PRESSURE

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on September 2 asks Russia to clarify. Nato, EU demand a probe

HE’S OUT OF COMA

He emerges from the coma and is responsive on September 7. Labs in France, Sweden say he was indeed poisoned with Novichok

TRACES OF NOVICHOK FOUND

Later in September, his aides find traces of Novichok on a bottle taken from a Siberia hotel he stayed before falling ill

PUTIN ACCUSED

On October 1, Navalny says Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind the poisoning

THE PHONE CALL

In December, Navalny releases a recording of him tricking a Russian spy into confessing he tried to kill him by putting poison in his underpants

THE DOOMED RETURN

Navalny returns to Moscow by flight and is detained shortly after landing