Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Why Navalny is becoming a danger to Putin

Alexei Navalny in February 2020 (photo: Getty)

The man with no name is now a prisoner with a number. Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader poisoned by security officers back in August, flew back to Moscow yesterday and was promptly arrested. Whether this is symbolic catch-and-release or a sign that the Kremlin plans to bury him – literally or metaphorically – in its prison system remains to be seen.

The Kremlin certainly did everything they could to prevent his return being a media event. He was due to arrive at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport, where a crowd of journalists, supporters and riot police jostled in anticipation. So too did a rent-a-mob of supposed fans of a Russian media personality who, judging by her Instagram feed, wasn’t expecting this kind of reception. Anything to muddy the waters.

Even so, this was a feint. At the last minute, a ‘technical problem’ with the airport’s snow-ploughs was announced and Navalny’s flight was diverted to Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, a fair way to the north of Vnukovo. Just in case, the authorities also closed the Leningradskoye Highway leading to Sheremetevo. Navalny was detained at passport control and is arraigned for trial on the 29th.

The more the Kremlin feels it has to carry out such subterfuges, and the more it bears down on Navalny – who was arrested on the grounds that he failed to observe his probation terms for a past drummed-up charge while he was convalescing in Germany – then the more threadbare its claims that he is an inconsequential figure sound.

We should not overstate his appeal: even after the poisoning, many Russians do not know who he is, and many others still parrot the talking points of the government’s TV mouthpieces: that he is an opportunist or a foreign catspaw, and that he staged the poisoning as a publicity stunt.

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