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Navalny Due to Fly Back to Russia with Threat of Arrest Looming

RFE/RL's Russian Service

   Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny is due to fly back to Russia
   on January 17 from Germany despite the Russian authorities' stated
   desire to arrest him and potentially jail him for years.

   Navalny is expected to fly to Moscow from Berlin, where he has received
   months of medical treatment for a poisoning that he has blamed on the
   Russian authorities.

   The outspoken Kremlin critic announced on January 13 that he would
   return to Russia despite having received a notice that the country's
   Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) would seek his arrest.

   His return sets the stage for a potentially dramatic new showdown
   between the Kremlin and Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putin's most
   outspoken foes.

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