As Russian opposition leader Navalny flies to Moscow, his supporters arrested at airport

MOSCOW, RUSSIA - JANUARY 17: Russia’s most prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Sunday (Jan. 17) left Germany and boarded a plane to Moscow five months after near-fatal poisoning.But the Russian police detained some of his supporters who were waiting at the Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow to greet him.On Wednesday (Jan. 13) Navalny said he is planning to return to his country.“I am going back home on Jan. 17,” he said in a tweet.Last September, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitriy Peskov said the opposition leader is free to return to Russia any time.Navalny, 44, a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, felt sick last August on a flight to Moscow.After an emergency landing in Omsk, he spent two days in a hospital before being sent to Berlin for treatment. He is currently in Germany.After tests in several laboratories, German officials said Navalny was poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent, which was also used, according to the UK government, in a 2018 attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the British town of Salisbury.Russian authorities deny any involvement in the case and contend that chemical weapons are neither developed nor produced by Russia since the last chemical round was destroyed in 2017, as verified and certified by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. (Footage by Dmitri Chirciu/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)