01:14Germany: Media and supporters wait for Navalny at Berlin airport ahead of flight to Russia
Media and supporters of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny gathered outside Berlin Brandenburg Airport, on Sunday, in anticipation of his flight back to Russia following his period of recovery and rehabilitation in Germany.
Earlier this month, Navalny announced his intention to travel from Berlin to Moscow aboard a Pobeda Airlines flight on January 17, following his almost five-months stay in Germany where he was recovering after his alleged poisoning with the Novichok nerve agent in August.
At the end of December, over three months after his discharge from hospital, Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service demanded that Navalny visit its offices in accordance with the terms of a suspended sentence that he received for a 2014 embezzlement case. The agency warned that he would face a jail term if he failed to appear by December 29, a deadline he was to miss.
On January 12, the Federal Penitentiary Service formally requested that Navalny be jailed for breaching the terms of the suspended prison sentence. In a statement they said they were obliged to take “all available steps” to detain Navalny.
Supporters of the opposition figure plan to greet him upon his arrival at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport despite not having received authorisation for the planned gathering.
Navalny arrived in the German capital aboard a medical plane on August 22 last year, after falling ill during a flight from Tomsk to Moscow on August 20. The plane had been forced to make an emergency landing in Omsk where Navalny was rushed to hospital for treatment.
The German government has said independent laboratories from France and Sweden had confirmed findings by German military toxicologists that Navalny was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent. Tests by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons also suggest Navalny was exposed to Novichok.
Russian authorities have called for evidence of the alleged poisoning and deny accusations of any Russian state involvement in the incident. Navalny had been convalescing in Germany following his discharge from hospital.
01:14Media and supporters of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny gathered outside Berlin Brandenburg Airport, on Sunday, in anticipation of his flight back to Russia following his period of recovery and rehabilitation in Germany.
Earlier this month, Navalny announced his intention to travel from Berlin to Moscow aboard a Pobeda Airlines flight on January 17, following his almost five-months stay in Germany where he was recovering after his alleged poisoning with the Novichok nerve agent in August.
At the end of December, over three months after his discharge from hospital, Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service demanded that Navalny visit its offices in accordance with the terms of a suspended sentence that he received for a 2014 embezzlement case. The agency warned that he would face a jail term if he failed to appear by December 29, a deadline he was to miss.
On January 12, the Federal Penitentiary Service formally requested that Navalny be jailed for breaching the terms of the suspended prison sentence. In a statement they said they were obliged to take “all available steps” to detain Navalny.
Supporters of the opposition figure plan to greet him upon his arrival at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport despite not having received authorisation for the planned gathering.
Navalny arrived in the German capital aboard a medical plane on August 22 last year, after falling ill during a flight from Tomsk to Moscow on August 20. The plane had been forced to make an emergency landing in Omsk where Navalny was rushed to hospital for treatment.
The German government has said independent laboratories from France and Sweden had confirmed findings by German military toxicologists that Navalny was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent. Tests by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons also suggest Navalny was exposed to Novichok.
Russian authorities have called for evidence of the alleged poisoning and deny accusations of any Russian state involvement in the incident. Navalny had been convalescing in Germany following his discharge from hospital.