Russia Detains Returning Kremlin Critic Navalny
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – Russia’s prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was detained at a Moscow airport Sunday after returning from Germany, where he received medical treatment for nerve agent poisoning.
Navalny faces 3.5 years jail for allegedly flouting terms of a suspended prison sentence on a 2014 embezzlement conviction. He has denied wrongdoing, and supporters agree that the charge was politically motivated.
Navalny was detained at passport control in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport after his plane from Berlin was diverted at the last minute. It was an apparent effort by authorities to thwart journalists and supporters greeting him at another airport.
Sunday’s move was likely to spark a wave of Western criticism of President Vladimir Putin, who has been accused of stifling dissent.
In a case noted worldwide, Navalny was poisoned last summer by what German military tests showed was Novichok, a Soviet-designed nerve agent.
The anti-corruption campaigner was rushed for treatment to Germany from
where he later impersonated an official in the Kremlin’s Security Council.
PHONE TALK
In a phone conversation, he extracted an admission of guilt from a toxins expert with the FSB security service.
In a video of the conversation published by Navalny, the alleged FSB agent said agents placed poison in Navalny’s underwear in August. His video reportedly attracted more than 13 million views in 24 hours.
The European Union imposed sanctions on Russian officials for alleged involvement in poisoning Navalny, a version of events the Kremlin rejects.
Russia later slapped sanctions on officials saying the opposition leader had a persecution complex and “compares himself to Jesus.”
Despite the tensions, Navalny, 44, who is President Putin’s most prominent foe, brushed off concerns about the arrest as he boarded the plane in Berlin. “It’s impossible; I’m an innocent man,” he stressed.
His arrest, however, raised tensions in Russia ahead of parliament elections this year. Navalny’s supporters were to be active in trying to defeat pro-Kremlin candidates.
LEAVING GERMANY
Navalny decided to leave Berlin of his own free will and wasn’t under apparent pressure from Germany.
The Human Rights Watch group Executive Director Kenneth Roth said on social networking site Twitter that he respected Navalny’s decision.
“This is a real act of bravery for Alexei Navalny to return to Russia, given that government agents already tried to kill him once,” Roth ‘tweeted.’
“But he understandably wants to be part of the pro-democracy movement in Russia, not a dissident in exile.”
Navalny has sizable popularity in Moscow. Reporters noticed many supporters waiting at Vnukovo airport, where his flight was scheduled to land. It was diverted to Sheremetyevo without explanation.
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