Russia’s prison service has ordered opposition leader Alexei Navalny to return to Moscow on Tuesday morning or face jail if he returns out of time, Reuters reports.
The state of play: Navalny, one of Russia’s most prominent critics of President Vladimir Putin, has been in Germany since he was transferred there while recovering from a poisoning attempt.
- An investigation by the Bellingcat website verified this month that Navalny was being followed by a chemical weapons team from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) before his poisoning.
- Last week it was revealed that Navalny had deceived one of the FSB agents accused of having detailed it in a phone call about how the failed operation was carried out. The Kremlin has denied any role in the poisoning and says it has seen no evidence that Navalny was poisoned.
Details: The Federal Prison Service (FSIN) on Monday accused Navalny of violating the terms of a suspended prison sentence he has been serving since 2014 for a case of theft that he said was politically motivated.
- Navalny’s lawyer said there was no way back to Moscow on Tuesday and accused the FSIN of acting on orders from the Kremlin, according to Reuters.
- Navalny has been arrested several times for his anti-government protests. His probationary period expires on December 30th.
In depth: The Russian security agent tricked Navalny into revealing a poisoning plot