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Alexej Navalny with his wife Julia at passport control in Moscow
Photo: KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP
Alexei Navalny's freedom ended before he could show his passport.
At the border control of Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, Terminal D, the Russian opposition politician and prominent returnees were taken away by the police.
The whole world could watch it, so many journalists had accompanied him on the flight from Berlin, just to film this scene: How Navalny, arriving from Berlin in a green jacket and scarf, is asked by the police to come along.
How a discussion develops in the narrow passport control corridor: Navalny points out that his lawyer is standing next to him, but her presence is refused.
How he exchanges a hasty last kiss with his wife Julia.
How he is led away alone.
Whether Navalny will be imprisoned for a long time is not certain, but it looks like it.
Russia's prison authority, FSIN, announced shortly after Navalny's arrest that he had been arrested at her request.
She accuses him of not having complied with the reporting requirements for an earlier, controversial suspended sentence.
If the court agrees, that would mean three and a half years in prison for Navalny.
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