well russian opposition leader alexander
is heading home from germany where he's
been recovering
from a nerve agent attack that almost
killed him navalny insists that russian
president vladimir putin
ordered the poisoning which the kremlin
denies now navalny is risking arrest on
arrival
over an earlier suspended sentence
hi it's navalny with that familiar
greeting
kremlin critic alexei navalny announced
his plans to leave germany and return
home to
russia despite the fact that last time
he was there
he was fighting for his life
coming to germany was not my choice it's
a cool country but i am not here by my
own will
i am here because they tried to kill me
those people who now have a grudge
against me because they didn't manage to
kill me
and i survived back in august
navalny fell ill on board a plane from
tomsk to moscow
after an emergency landing he was rushed
to hospital
where doctors insisted there was no
evidence of poisoning
but two days later navalny was airlifted
to germany for treatment
there experts confirmed he had been
poisoned with soviet-era nerve agent
novichok
since then the opposition leader has
been recovering from the attack
and investigating who was behind it
he even got an alleged member of the hit
squad to confess
by calling him posing as an aide to a
top fsb
official the agent said the team had put
the poison in navalny's underwear
the kremlin has denied any link to the
poisoning but navalny insists it was
ordered by president vladimir putin
himself
now navalny is facing arrest on his
return authorities say he's breached the
terms of a suspended sentence he
received in a 2014 fraud trial
but navalny says it's just another move
designed to scare him off
without success our reporter aaron
tilton is at berlin airport for us
last time navalny was on russian soil
aaron someone tried to kill him
why is he going back
well alexei navalny has never made any
secret of the fact that he always
intended
to return to russia you have to remember
he is the most prominent member of the
russian opposition and the most visible
thanks in large part to a lot of his
social media work and also his work with
his anti-corruption foundation
and that work is very hard to coordinate
from abroad
and of course within russia itself
there's um for a long time been this
sentiment that it's very hard to be a
russian politician
when you're not in the country directly
one just needs to think of
the opposition aligned oligarch michael
jordakovsky who after a lengthy prison
term was actually forced into political
exile abroad now he quickly lost
relevance within russia
itself and i think that's a faith that
alexian navalny really hoped to avoid
which is part of the reason that he's
taken this step
to return to the country today aaron
we've got you loud and clear but i
should apologize to the viewers that we
do have a large delay but we're going to
plow on
and ask you aaron how much is navalny's
life
at risk in russia
well after um last year's assassination
attempt
um of course concerns of his own
personal safety are going to be weighing
heavily on his mind
that being said it's not in clear that
he's in
immediate danger on mortal danger upon
returning to the country
instead um this seems to be kind of a
politically uh
politically calculated gambit upon his
part he's attempting to up the pressure
on vladimir putin which is something he
does appear to be doing quite
successfully by returning to the country
if putin doesn't take action against him
he runs the risk of actually appearing
weak to his own voters and his own
supporters
within the country but at the same time
if vladimir putin does choose to take
action against navalny he could
run the risk of waking new sympathies
for navalny within russia and also
abroad
and other people have floated the idea
that if alexia navalny is actually
arrested upon his return
he could um actually become kind of a
cause celebrity among
both russians and also politicians
abroad and now that's not a very
attractive prospect for the man in the
kremlin which is part of the reason i
think that
navalny has um chosen to undergo this
gambit and actually return to the
country
aaron just very briefly before we go
what exactly are those allegations
that threaten to have navalny arrested
on his return
well the most pressing are allegations
that he violated the conditions of a
suspended sentence he was given for
corruption in 2013
2014. now moscow's prison authority
maintains that he would need to have
checked in with his parole officers
while he was receiving treatment here in
germany now they say
that didn't happen which is part of the
reason they are pressing for his arrest
when he returns to moscow later today
aaron tilton in berlin many thanks
you