Moscow | Russian opponent Alexei Navalny, recovering in Germany after suffering suspected poisoning in August, announced on Wednesday that he would return to Russia on Sunday, January 17 despite facing the threat of a prison sentence.
“I survived. And now (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, who ordered my assassination (…) tells his servants to do everything so that I do not come back, ”said the 44-year-old opponent in a video posted on his Instagram page, adding that he picked up a ticket on a regular line on January 17.
“The question ‘To come back or not’ has never arisen for me. Simply because I haven’t left. I ended up in Germany when I got there in a resuscitation box, ”continued Mr. Navalny.
Anti-corruption activist and sworn enemy of the Kremlin, Mr. Navalny was uneasy in August while on a plane, returning from an election tour in Siberia. The aircraft had made an emergency landing in Omsk, where the opponent was hospitalized 48 hours before being evacuated, in a coma, to Germany.
It came out at the beginning of September and three European laboratories concluded that it was poisoned by a Novichok-type nerve agent, a substance designed by Soviet specialists for military purposes.
This conclusion was confirmed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and an investigation by several media pointed to the responsibility of the Russian special services (FSB) in this poisoning.
Since coming out of the coma, Alexeï Navalny accuses Vladimir Putin of directly ordering his murder, which the Kremlin categorically rejects.
He risks a prison sentence in Russia, the justice having recorded Tuesday a complaint asking for the conversion of a suspended prison sentence targeting him in prison.
The opponent claims that the complaint was lodged by the Russian Prison Service (FSIN) for a conviction dating from December 2014, believing it to be a maneuver to prevent him from returning to his country.
At the end of December, an investigation for “large-scale fraud” was opened against him, the Russian Investigation Committee indicating that he is suspected of having spent on his personal use 356 million rubles (3.9 million euros at the current rate) of donations.