The government continues to rely on repression, but Navalny’s rallying cry has galvanised the opposition
Alexei Navalny is detained on arrival at Sheremetyevo international airport in Moscow on 17 January. Photograph: Sergei Bobylev/TASS
Alexei Navalny is detained on arrival at Sheremetyevo international airport in Moscow on 17 January. Photograph: Sergei Bobylev/TASS
Tue 19 Jan 2021 08.28 EST
Last modified on Tue 19 Jan 2021 08.30 EST
Less than 24 hours after returning to Russia, Alexei Navalny – the most internationally recognisable political opponent of Vladimir Putin – was jailed for 30 days following a brief court hearing held inside a police station in a suburb of Moscow. Navalny, having survived a nearly lethal poisoning by the Soviet-era nerve agent novichok in August, now faces a possible three-and-a-half year prison sentence.