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Poisoned Kremlin Critic Navalny Told To Return To Russia Or Face Jail
Russia's Federal Prison Service has told Kremlin critic and anti-corruption activist Aleksei Navalny to return immediately from Germany -- where he is recovering from a near-fatal poisoning by a Soviet-era nerve agent -- or face jail in Russia.

12/29/20
Russia's Federal Prison Service has told Kremlin critic and anti-corruption activist Aleksei Navalny to return immediately from Germany -- where he is recovering from a near-fatal poisoning by a Soviet-era nerve agent -- or face jail in Russia. In a December 28 statement, the prison service accused Navalny of violating the terms of a suspended prison sentence relating to a 2014 fraud conviction and of evading criminal inspectors. Navalny fell ill on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow on August 20 and was treated and placed in an induced coma in a Siberian hospital before being transferred to a world-class facility in Germany. Lab tests in three European countries, confirmed by the international Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, have established the Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent of the Novichok class. The findings led the European Union to imposed sanctions on six Russian officials and a state research institute. Russian authorities have claimed that no trace of poison was found in Navalny's body before he was airlifted to Germany, and have refused to open a criminal investigation into the incident. Navalny has blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for his poisoning.
On December 28, Navalny lawyer Vadim Kobzev tweeted that the Criminal Inspectorate had ordered Navalny to show up at its office on the morning of December 29. Navalny, who has vowed to return home at an undisclosed time, responded by saying that the demand showed that the Russian government was accepting that he was poisoned. Navalny's spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, tweeted that it would not be possible for Navalny to return to Russia by the deadline, and that he was still recuperating from his poisoning. "There's no way he could appear at the Moscow Criminal Inspectorate tomorrow. But does the FSIN [prison service] really care about common sense? They were given an order, they are fulfilling it," she wrote.]
The Kremlin would love to revoke Navalny's suspended sentence and instead incarcerate him in a Siberian penal colony and held incommunicado from the world.
The Navalny Foundation lawyer, Lyubov Sobol, is currently facing a 5 year prison term for "violently trespassing" (ringing a doorbell).