Russia’s opposition leader Alexei Navalni returned to Russia five months after treatment with a poison attack, but was immediately arrested.
Navalni arrived at Sheremetyevo International Airport outside Moscow on a Russian flight from Berlin, Germany yesterday (17th) local time, and was arrested by the police immediately at the airport immigration.
In a statement, the Russian Federation Criminal Execution Bureau said in a statement that “the wanted Navalni was arrested for violating his probation obligation several times.”
It is known that Navalni will be imprisoned in a detention center until the end of this month, when a suit for cancellation of probation is scheduled.
Shortly after returning home, Navalni tweeted, “I’m not afraid,” and “I know that the criminal case against me was fabricated.”
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement that “I strongly condemn the Russian authorities’ decision to arrest Navalni,” and criticized the arrest as “an attempt to silence critical opposition members and independent voices.”
Jake Sullivan, an aide to the White House National Security Council, also urged immediate release on Twitter, saying, “The Navalni attack is not just a human rights violation, but an insult to the Russian people who want to hear him.”
President Putin’s static opposition leader Navalni fell into a coma on a flight from Tomsk in Siberia to Moscow in August, and was transferred to a German hospital to recover.
VOA news
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