MOSCOW — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was detained upon arrival at a Moscow airport Sunday — five months after being poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent — prompting international condemnation.
Before he was escorted away by police in black face masks at passport control, Navalny told a small group of journalists he did not regret coming back to Russia.
“I am completely happy. This is the best day in five months,” he said in a livestreamed video broadcast by several Russian media outlets. “I know that I am in the right, and that the criminal cases against me are fabricated.”
Navalny flew in from Germany, where he had undergone treatment for exposure to a nerve agent of the Novichok group. European countries have blamed Russian authorities for the poisoning while Navalny himself has pointed the finger at the FSB secret service, which he says was acting on the direct orders of President Vladimir Putin. Moscow has denied the accusations and has refused to investigate the poisoning.
Instead, Russia’s prison authority warned in the past week that Navalny would be detained the moment he set foot on Russian soil. It said he had breached the terms of a suspended prison sentence handed to him in 2014 in an embezzlement case widely denounced by his supporters as politically motivated. He now faces a similar fate as his brother Oleg Navalny, who already served three and a half years behind bars for the same case.
There were already three other legal cases launched against Alexei Navalny, and the threat of arrest was interpreted by his supporters as a further attempt to dissuade him from returning.
That he would not be welcomed back with open arms by Russian authorities, therefore, did not come as a surprise. But the timing and manner of the expected detainment had been the subject of feverish speculation ever since Navalny announced his impending return on Instagram just days ago.
The move prompted criticism from EU leaders, including the bloc’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, who called on Russian authorities to respect Navalny’s rights and to set him free.
“Politicisation of the judiciary is unacceptable,” Borrell tweeted.
A joint statement from the governments of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia said the “EU should act swiftly and if he is not released, we need to consider imposition of restrictive measures in response to this blatant act.”
European Council President Charles Michel and European Parliament President David Sassoli also called for his release.
“The arrest of Alexey #Navalny in Moscow is an offence to the international community, to Europe that helped save his life,” Sassoli tweeted. “We ask the Russian authorities for his immediate release. We are ready to invite him to the @Europarl_EN.”
The European People’s Party, the largest group in the European Parliament, said the arrest “should not go unanswered,” and called for a debate in plenary this coming week.
Jake Sullivan, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming White House national security adviser, similarly called for Navalny’s release and added: “The Kremlin’s attacks on Mr. Navalny are not just a violation of human rights, but an affront to the Russian people who want their voices heard.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement in response that Sullivan and others were “rushing” to post comments.
“Have respect for international law, do not interfere with national law of sovereign countries, deal with your domestic problems,” Zakharova said.
Last-minute detour
Navalny’s plane was diverted away at the last moment from Vnukovo Airport, where it was originally scheduled to land, and where hundreds of his supporters had heeded his call to “Come meet me!” — braving temperatures of -20 degrees Celsius.
There was a heavy police presence at the airport and in total some 60 people were detained, according to the OVD police monitoring website.
Upon hearing the flight from carrier Pobeda — Russian for “Victory” — would no longer be landing at Vnukovo, many in the crowd turned to livestreams on their phones to follow what was happening.
Others rushed off to make the one-hour car journey to Sheremetyevo Airport on the other side of town, but faced more disappointment after roads leading there were sealed off.
Earlier this weekend, several Navalny supporters were similarly hampered in their efforts to greet the opposition politician. Some of those traveling from outside the capital were taken off planes or trains by officers. And in the city of Samara, a Navalny campaigner said her door was glued shut to prevent her from leaving.
Navalny’s supporters point to these incidents, as well as the last-minute plane diversion, as evidence the Kremlin is fearful of Navalny’s influence at a time of economic downturn and Putin’s faltering popularity.
“The authorities are showing their pettiness, their fear,” prominent filmmaker Vitaly Mansky told POLITICO at Vnukovo Airport. “But this day is a historic one regardless: A politician who survived a murder attempt returns to the country that tried to kill him. It shows he is stronger than this country and its rulers.”
Russian authorities, however, were intent on showing they were unfazed by the return of the government’s most prominent opposition politician.
The airport at which Navalny’s plane had been set to land cited a problem with a snow plow for the diversion.
And asked to comment on Navalny’s detention, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Excuse me, was he detained in Germany? I’m not up to speed.”
Whether this is, as some analysts have suggested, a final crackdown on Navalny remains to be seen. He could be held in custody pending a court hearing on his suspended sentence on January 29.
But others argue anything is still possible and the authorities are playing it by ear. “For today, the problem has been solved, there was no big welcome with flowers. But tomorrow is a new day and something new will be thought up,” political analyst Ekaterina Shulman told the VTimes media outlet.
Public reaction in Russia to the detention in the coming days and weeks will also be crucial to what Moscow decides to do next, according to political analyst Valery Solovei. “The most important indicator for the Kremlin regarding Navalny’s fate will be determined by protest dynamics,” Solovei said on the Ekho Moskvy radio station. “If there had been 10,000 people at the airport tonight, instead of mere hundreds, this would not have happened.”
Echoing that sentiment, Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, thanked his supporters and urged them not to be discouraged.
“The most important thing Alexei said tonight is that he’s not afraid,” she said as she stepped into a car, leaving the airport where her husband had just been detained. “I’m not afraid either. And I call on you all not to be afraid.”
This article has been updated.
