Navalny returns: the oppositionist will be met by supporters and security forces

Today at 19:20 the plane on which Alexei Navalny is going to return is scheduled to land at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport. A politician arriving from Germany may be detained immediately upon arrival. Supporters and sympathizers plan to meet Navalny at the airport. The airport administration limited the work of the media, citing coronavirus. Detentions of journalists and activists began the day before.

At the end of August, Alexei Navalny felt unwell during a flight from Tomsk to Moscow. After an emergency landing, he was hospitalized in Omsk and fell into a coma. Relatives and supporters managed to get the politician transported for treatment to Berlin, to the Charité clinic. There, doctors discovered poison from the Novichok group of toxic substances, developed by the Soviet intelligence services. In September, Navalny emerged from a coma, after which he underwent rehabilitation in the German Black Forest.

On December 14, the team of the independent online publication Bellingcat, together with media from several countries and Navalny’s team, published an investigation into the assassination attempt on the politician. Journalists claim that he was followed for a long time by FSB officers specializing in chemistry and medicine, in particular they were present in Tomsk, on the way from which Navalny fell into a coma. On December 21, the oppositionist published a recording of a telephone conversation - according to him, he talked with one of the participants in the assassination attempt, FSB officer chemist Konstantin Kudryavtsev. The conversation largely confirms the conclusions of the investigation.

There is virtually no verification of the accusations against intelligence officers and the country's leadership brought by Bellingcat and Navalny in Russia. On December 17, Vladimir Putin said that if the Russian special services wanted to poison Navalny, they would “see the matter through to the end.” The Investigative Committee did not investigate the actions of the FSB officers.

At the same time, pressure on Alexei Navalny, employees of his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and supporters of the politician increased. A criminal case was opened against FBK lawyer Lyubov Sobol under the article of violation of the inviolability of the home for trying to enter the apartment of FSB officer Kudryavtsev. The fingerprints of the head of Sobol's campaign headquarters, Olga Klyuchnikova, were allegedly discovered during an examination in the apartment of Konstantin Kudryavtsev. In addition, a “bug” was found in her phone: devices for sound recording, GPS, screen tracking and data transmission were discovered after the equipment was seized - Klyuchnikova was detained at the police department where Lyubov Sobol was taken. FBK videographer Pavel Zelensky was sent to a pre-trial detention center for tweets about the suicide of Nizhny Novgorod journalist Irina Slavina - a case was opened against him on charges of calls for extremism.

On December 29, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case of fraud on an especially large scale against Alexei Navalny “and other persons” for allegedly misusing 356 million rubles in donations from FBK supporters.

On January 11, the Federal Penitentiary Service asked to replace Navalny’s suspended sentence in the Yves Rocher case with a real one, accusing him of failing to comply with the terms of his probation. In this case, Navalny was found guilty of fraud in commercial transactions, Alexey received a suspended sentence, and his brother Oleg Navalny served more than three years. Alexei Navalny's probation period ended on December 30. On January 13, when Navalny announced his intention to return to Russia, it became known that the Federal Penitentiary Service had put the politician on the wanted list.

As a conditionally convicted person, Alexei Navalny was required to regularly visit the criminal correctional inspection. The Federal Penitentiary Service claims that the politician did not appear “at least six times” even before the poisoning. According to a message on the service’s website, since Navalny was discharged from Charité at the end of September and underwent only rehabilitation procedures, the fact that he did not appear at the inspection at the end of 2020 is also a violation.

The Moscow department of the Federal Penitentiary Service stated that they are obliged to “take all actions to detain the offender until the court decides to replace the suspended sentence with a real one.” The request to change the deadline will be considered on January 29. Navalny may well be detained on the initiative of the Investigative Committee due to a new case of fraud with donations.

On the eve of Navalny's return to Russia, several of his supporters were not allowed to leave St. Petersburg for Moscow by train , plane or car ; other activists were detained at pickets in support of the politician. In Moscow, many oppositionists were given warnings by the police about the inadmissibility of participating in the rally in Vnukovo. The airport administration limited the possibility of covering the politician's meeting, but promised to provide the media with a recording of the arrival of the flight passengers. More than eight thousand people expressed their desire to meet Navalny in Vnukovo on Facebook.

If you are also going to Vnukovo, OVD-Info recommends preparing:

• Read our "Instructions for the Ideal Detainee" ;
• Charge your phone and power bank, take a copy of your passport, a bottle of water, the medications you need and prescriptions for them;
• Install our telegram bot and write down the hotline number: 8 800 707-05-28

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