Alexei Navalny, the vociferous critic of the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin, was detained at a Moscow airport on Sunday minutes after he returned home for the first time, five months after he was poisoned. The lawyer and activist was detained at passport control at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport within an hour after he flew in from Berlin. Navalny’s detention was condemned by the European Union.
“The detainment of Alexei Navalny upon arrival in Moscow is unacceptable. I call on Russian authorities to immediately release him,” European Council president Charles Michel wrote on Twitter.
European Parliament President David Sassoli tweeted, Navalny's arrest "is an offence to the international community, to Europe that helped save his life. We ask the Russian authorities for his immediate release. We are ready to invite him to the European Parliament."
Navalny was originally supposed to land in Moscow’s Vnukovo airport. But, minutes before the plane landed, authorities of Pobeda airlines— the aircraft carrying Navalny were told that Vnukovo was closed for arriving aircraft and the aeroplane was diverted to Sheremetyevo airport. Navalny was detained by four uniformed policemen wearing black masks and led him away after a hug and a kiss from his wife Yulia. He has been detained for “multiple violations” of a 2014 suspended sentence for fraud, and that “he will be held in custody” until a court ruling, Russia’s FSIN (Federal Penitentiary Service) prison service said.
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Several of Navalny’s top allies, who were waiting for him at Vnukovo were detained, too.
Navalny, who said he wasn’t afraid to have returned to Russia, told CNN, “All the criminal cases against me are fabricated."
His wife Yulia Navalnaya, said that Navalny’s arrest showed that the authorities were scared of her husband; and detaining a large number of people, “just over a man who is returning to his motherland."
Navalny’s lawyer Olga Mikhailova told AFP, “Alexei was detained without the reason being explained. Everything that is happening now is against the law”.
Navalny is known to publish popular videos of YouTube investigations into the wealth of Russia's political elites. The activist’s team, which has been a target of police raids, jail stints and lawsuits has been given negative press by the state-controlled TV. Navalny has never held an elected office.