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Russia

Watch: Russian opposition leader Navalny kisses wife before being detained in Moscow airport

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By Euronews with AP
lexei Navalny is surrounded by journalists inside the plane prior to his flight to Moscow in Berlin Brandenburg Airport, Germany. Sunday, Jan. 17, 2021.
lexei Navalny is surrounded by journalists inside the plane prior to his flight to Moscow in Berlin Brandenburg Airport, Germany. Sunday, Jan. 17, 2021.   -  Copyright  Mstyslav Chernov/AP

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny kissed his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, before being detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport after returning from Germany on Sunday.

The country's prison service said he was detained for multiple violations of parole and terms of a suspended prison sentence and would be held in custody until a court makes a decision in his case.

Navalny's detention at passport control in the Moscow airport was widely expected because the service had warned that he violated parole terms from a suspended sentence on a 2014 embezzlement conviction and that he faced immediate arrest upon his return to Russia.

The 44-year-old, who is President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent and determined foe, brushed off concerns about being arrested as he boarded the plane in Berlin.

“It's impossible; I'm an innocent man,” he said.

The Russian opposition leader announced Wednesday that he would return to his homeland after recovering from being poisoned with a nerve agent, despite Russian authorities' threats to put him behind bars again.

Navalny, who has blamed his poisoning in August on the Kremlin, said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was now trying to deter him from coming home with new legal motions.

Moscow has repeatedly denied a role in the opposition leader’s poisoning.