Navalni goes to Russia after 5 months of poisoning… Immediately arrested

Alexey Navalni is boarding a flight to Moscow at Brandenburg Airport in Berlin, Germany on the 17th (local time). [AP=연합뉴스]

Alexey Navalni, an opposition politician who is counted as a static member of Russian President Vladimir Putin, returned from Germany to Russia on the 17th (local time) after five months of suspicion of “poison terrorism”. Navalni was immediately arrested by Russian correctional authorities shortly after his return.

According to local media such as’Novaya Gazzetta’, Navalni arrived at Moscow Sheremetyevo International Airport on a flight of Russian airline Poveda this afternoon. He previously announced his return to his country through his social network service (SNS).

Navalni was detained by police without any explanation shortly after arriving at Sheremetyevo Airport, his spokesman tweeted. According to CNN, Navalni told a local reporter at the airport just before his arrest, “Today is the best day in the last five months. “I am not afraid,” he said. “I will go home because the crime against me has been fabricated.”

On August 20 last year, Navalni fell into a coma while traveling from Tomsk, Siberia to Moscow by domestic flight. Navalni was evacuated to a hospital in Omsk, Siberia, and then transferred to a German hospital for treatment. Navalni has been receiving rehabilitation treatment after discharge.

The German government and others announced that Navalni’s blood sample analysis resulted in the detection of a nerve agent,’Nobichok’. Navalni pointed to the Russian government as behind the incident, but the Russian government immediately refuted it. President Putin also repeatedly denied the allegations at an annual press conference in December last year.

In 2014, Navalni was convicted of fraud and was sentenced to probation. Russian correctional authorities have announced that Navalni will be arrested upon return for failure to comply with his probation obligations.

Reporter Na Unchae [email protected]