Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a Pobeda airlines plane travelling from Berlin to Moscow.
Moscow:
Russian police detained top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny at a Moscow airport on Sunday just minutes after he returned home for the first time since his poisoning last summer.
Navalny was detained at passport control at Moscow s Sheremetyevo airport less than an hour after he flew in from Berlin in defiance of warnings that he faced imminent arrest.
His detention prompted immediate condemnation from the European Union and calls for EU sanctions against Russia by Lithuania. The detainment of Alexey Navalny upon arrival in Moscow is unacceptable. I call on Russian authorities to immediately release him, European Council president Charles Michel wrote on Twitter.