Putin critic Alexei Navalny has been detained after flying back to Moscow from Germany, five months after he was nearly killed by a nerve agent attack, reports the BBC.
The activist, 44, was led away by police at passport control at Sheremetyevo airport.
News of Mr Navalny’s detention prompted condemnation from the European Union, France and Italy, which called for his immediate release.
When Mr Navalny was poisoned last August and collapsed on an internal flight in Siberia, he was flown to Germany for emergency medical treatment. Mr Navalny blames Russian authorities for the attempt on his life last year. The Kremlin denies any role.
The opposition politician’s allegations have however been backed up by reports from investigative journalists. European experts later said he had been poisoned with the extremely toxic chemical weapon Novichok, developed by Soviet scientists in the Cold War.
Mr Navalny then duped an FSB agent named Konstantin Kudryavtsev into revealing details of the operation against him in a phone conversation which he recorded and posted online.
He was released from a hospital in Berlin in September to continue his recuperation. As he recovered, he said he intended to return to Russia.
On Sunday he made good on that pledge, boarding a Pobeda Airlines flight despite warnings he would face arrest on landing.
“I know that I’m right. I fear nothing,” Mr Navalny told supporters and the media upon landing, just minutes before he was detained.
In a statement late on Sunday, Russia’s prison service said the opposition leader “had been wanted since 29 December 2020 for repeated violations of the probation period after a conviction for embezzlement”, for which he received a suspended sentence. It added that he would remain in custody until a court decision. He has always said the case was politically motivated.
Separately, Russian prosecutors have launched a new criminal case against Mr Navalny on fraud charges related to transfers of money to various charities, including his Anti-Corruption Foundation.
The activist earlier argued that Mr Putin was doing all he could to stop him from returning to Russia by fabricating new cases against him.
