Chief Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny returned to Russia from Germany on Jan. 17 and was arrested shortly after arrival. Authorities had warned that they would detain him.
Navalny’s flight landed in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport after being diverted from a different airport where his supporters and media had gathered, AFP journalists on the plane said. Russian police on Sunday already detained four of his top allies.
The 44-year-old opposition leader went back to Moscow after spending several months in Germany recovering from a nerve-gas poisoning attack that he said was carried out on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
