Alexey Navalny returns to Russia
Police arrest the opposition politician after he arrives in Moscow
What’s happening: Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny flew home to Moscow from Berlin after recuperating from being poisoned with a weapons-grade nerve agent. Navalny had been away for more than four months, and federal prison officials say his absence constitutes a violation of the parole terms specified in a felony conviction in 2014 for embezzlement and money laundering. The Federal Penitentiary Service has asked a court to reinstate his sentence and change his probation to incarceration. The prison agency wants Navalny jailed until the courts hear its lawsuit.
Where to watch live video: The news outlets Current Time, MBK Media and Dozhd live-streamed from within Navalny’s plane and on the ground in Berlin and Moscow.
What happens now that Navalny has been arrested? Nobody knows for certain. He could be jailed, pending trial (in multiple felony cases), or released and permitted to return home after an arraignment hearing.
17 января 2021 г. 16:19:06
Alexey Navalny and his wife have boarded their flight home to Moscow. On Instagram, Navalny’s wife Yulia posted a video where she says, “Boy, bring us some vodka. We are flying home” — a reference to the final lines of the 2000 film “Brother 2” (where the two main characters fly back to Russia from the United States).
17 января 2021 г. 16:22:40
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It’s worth noting that the flight captain, when greeting the plane’s passengers, said that they would be “flying towards Moscow, Vnukovo airport.” This was likely a figure of speech, but it stands out, given rumors that the flight might be rerouted to another Moscow airport or even another city altogether.
17 января 2021 г. 16:31:33
Navalny’s homeward-bound plane is now in the air. Back in Moscow, Vnukovo Aiport officials have cordoned off the international arrivals terminal with a shield to obstruct the view.
17 января 2021 г. 16:33:20
Alexey Navalny’s brother, Oleg, is waiting for him at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow together with opposition politician Lyubov Sobol and others.
17 января 2021 г. 16:42:31
How could Navalny end up in prison after returning home?
His probation period in the so-called Yves Rocher case was supposed to expire on December 30, 2020. Two days earlier, however, the Federal Penitentiary Service declared that Navalny had violated the terms of his probation and was deliberately “evading corrective services’ oversight” by remaining abroad in Germany (where he was rushed in August for life-saving medical treatment, following an attempt on his life).
Citing an article published on December 22 in the medical journal The Lancet about Navalny’s battle with Novichok poisoning, the prison service announced that he’d “made a full recovery from his illness” as early as October 12. The agency also ordered Navalny to appear at its Moscow office within 24 hours, on December 29, vowing to ask a court to revoke his probation and incarcerate him, if he failed to return home.
In early January, the Federal Penitentiary Service filed a lawsuit arguing that Navalny evaded its oversight. Navalny’s original probation could be overturned and he could face a new cumulative sentence, if he is convicted of committing another felony (for instance, large-scale embezzlement) during his probation period. It so happens that federal investigators recently accused Navalny of embezzling hundreds of millions of rubles funds donated to his various oppositionist and anti-corruption organizations. The authorities have presented no evidence in this case.
17 января 2021 г. 16:46:16
Before Navalny took his seat on the plane back to Moscow, journalists swarmed him for several months in the isle, asking if he fears arrest upon arrival in Russia. “They’ll arrest me? They’ll arrest me when we land? That’s impossible,” the politician said, insisting on his right as a Russian citizen to come home.
17 января 2021 г. 16:46:47
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Meanwhile, fans of the Russian pop artist and “media personality” Olga Buzova have flooded Vnukovo Airport’s international terminal. Here they are singing her hit song “Malo Polovin” (A Few Halves).
17 января 2021 г. 16:59:54
Meanwhile, the line to get into Vnukovo Airport is growing and growing.
17 января 2021 г. 17:02:42
Some of the supporters awaiting Navalny at Vnukovo Airport include members of his campaign in Tomsk, where the opposition figure was poisoned and nearly killed in August 2020.
17 января 2021 г. 17:03:22
17 января 2021 г. 17:07:17
17 января 2021 г. 17:13:54
Video footage of police arresting Sobol, Shaveddinov, and Kotov inside the airport.
17 января 2021 г. 17:16:31
Police officers at Vnukovo Airport have also arrested Alexey Navalny’s brother, Oleg.
17 января 2021 г. 17:21:22
Police at Vnukovo Airport have now arrested several of Navalny’s most prominent supporters, including Lyubov Sobol, Ruslan Shaveddinov, Konstantin Kotov, Oleg Navalny, Ilya Pakhomov, Anastasia Kadetova, and Alexey Molokoedov, as well as Novaya Gazeta journalist Vlad Dokshin. The detainees are being escorted to police vans waiting outside.
17 января 2021 г. 17:26:33
The view from outside at Vnukovo Airport.
17 января 2021 г. 17:28:31
Meanwhile, the lines leading into Vnukovo Airport continue to grow.
17 января 2021 г. 17:35:05
Activist Konstantin Kotov says he was arrested at Vnukovo Airport without explanation. Officers reportedly tried to seize other detainees’ phones, before depositing them inside police vans outside, but Kotov says he managed to keep his.
17 января 2021 г. 17:40:24
Police at Vnukovo Airport have arrested an unidentified man carrying a Russian flag and wearing a headband reading “NAVALNY.”
17 января 2021 г. 17:47:05
Riot police have now deployed inside Vnukovo Airport.
17 января 2021 г. 17:50:09
17 января 2021 г. 18:04:18
Police at Vnukovo Airport have also started arresting Olga Buzova’s fans who assembled inside the international terminal, reportedly awaiting the pop musician.
17 января 2021 г. 18:08:23
At Vnukovo Airport, riot police officers are shouting through megaphones: “Please leave the airport. Only ticketed passengers will be admitted.” Some people in the crowd are yelling back “Fascists!”
17 января 2021 г. 18:11:30
Open Media reports that the people at Vnukovo Airport who identified themselves as Olga Buzova’s fans were also quietly photographing activists who gathered inside the airport to greet Navalny. The “Buzova fans” then uploaded these images to a recently created Telegram channel.
17 января 2021 г. 18:13:31
More images from outside Vnukovo Airport, where the police are using force against people without plane tickets who refuse to leave.
17 января 2021 г. 18:15:32
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Arrests continue outside at Vnukovo Airport as the crowd chants “Pozor!” (Disgrace!).
17 января 2021 г. 18:23:06
Inside Vnukovo Airport right now.
17 января 2021 г. 18:29:50
There are currently about 300 people waiting in Vnukovo’s international arrivals area. Police recently arrested a man who started shouting that “Putin is a provocateur and a liar.”
17 января 2021 г. 18:56:40
At the time of this writing, police at Vnukovo Airport have arrested at least 21 people.
17 января 2021 г. 18:59:48
Navalny’s flight has been rerouted to Sheremetyevo Airport, according to the arrivals screen at Vnukovo Airport.
17 января 2021 г. 19:11:54
Spokespeople for Pobeda Airlines told the news outlet RBC that Vnukovo Airport unexpectedly closed to new arrivals due to “technical problems,” forcing the company to reroute three Moscow-bound flights, including Navalny’s plane.
17 января 2021 г. 19:13:03
Navalny’s plane has landed at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow.
17 января 2021 г. 19:24:22
Before landing in Moscow, flight attendants took a moment to grab a photograph with the Navalnys.
17 января 2021 г. 19:29:09
Meanwhile, arrests continue at Vnukovo Airport, where Navalny was originally expected to land. According to OVD-Info, officials have taken at least 37 people into custody.
17 января 2021 г. 19:32:14
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Navalny and his wife, along with a phalanx of journalists, have exited the plane and are now shuttling to the arrivals terminal.
17 января 2021 г. 19:47:16
Anti-Corruption Foundation director Ivan Zhdanov reports that the authorities are charging several of the organization’s staff with disobeying police orders at Vnukovo Airport. (Navalny’s group has been designated as a “foreign agent” in Russia.)
17 января 2021 г. 19:48:34
Navalny and his entourage have now arrived inside Sheremetyevo Airport.
17 января 2021 г. 19:50:13
After arriving inside Sheremetyevo Airport, Alexey Navalny tells reporters that he apologizes to his fellow passengers who were inconvenienced by his return to Moscow and the authorities’ apparent decision to reroute his plane, in order to disrupt his welcome party. He repeats that he doesn’t fear arrest and says he expects to return home tonight without any problems, insisting that he’s done nothing illegal. Finishing these remarks, he made his way to passport control.
17 января 2021 г. 19:55:39
The Navalnys, moments before they pass through passport control.
17 января 2021 г. 20:03:04
Navalny has been arrested at Sheremetyevo Airport’s passport control. Police refused to allow his lawyer to accompany him.
17 января 2021 г. 20:17:48
Video footage of Navalny’s arrest. In a dispute with the police, Navalny disputes the authorities’ jurisdiction and insists on his right to be accompanied by a legal representative. He is ultimately escorted away without his lawyer.
17 января 2021 г. 20:29:32
Remember all those strange reports about pop musician Olga Buzova’s fans assembling at Vnukovo Airport? She says only three people knew about her flight to Moscow and she doesn’t know who these people in the airport were.
17 января 2021 г. 20:33:58
As a large crowd chants her name, Yulia Navalnaya is leaving the airport with Kira Yarmysh, her husband’s press secretary.
17 января 2021 г. 20:40:32
Citing anonymous sources, Telegram channel Baza reports that senior officials at Aeroflot and Pobeda airlines were warned a day in advance that Navalny’s flight would be rerouted at the last minute. The pilots were also apparently told about the “maneuver” and the plane was reportedly loaded with additional fuel. The plan supposedly called for the plane to circle the Moscow area several times before landing.
17 января 2021 г. 20:42:49
Amnesty International has declared Navalny a “prisoner of conscience.”
17 января 2021 г. 20:59:04
Olga Mikhailova, Navalny’s lawyer, told Current Time that officers from Russia’s Border Control and the Moscow police department carried out the arrest.
17 января 2021 г. 21:01:49
Belarusian opposition politician and former presidential candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has condemned Navalny’s arrest and compared it to the crackdown in her country.
17 января 2021 г. 21:05:59
The three Baltic states have also jointly condemned Navaly’s arrest.
17 января 2021 г. 21:22:18
The Kremlin comments
Speaking to journalists about Navalny’s arrest, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov indicated that he wasn’t aware of the incident, saying, “Please explain. He was arrested in Germany? I’m not following.”
17 января 2021 г. 21:26:37
Meduza is wrapping up its liveblog coverage at this time. More detailed reporting on Navalny’s arrest and the public response will come!