The “Return” action will be held in Berlin in support of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who flew to Russia from Germany on January 17, 2021, after which he was detained at passport control. The event will begin at 14.00 local time (16.00 Moscow time) on Sunday, January 16, on the Paris Square of the capital of Germany, next to the Brandenburg Gate.
As the organizers from the Demokrati-JA association clarify, this is an “action of solidarity” with Navalny, as well as “with all political prisoners and persecuted in Russia and other dictatorships of the post-Soviet space.”
In addition, the organizers want to express support for “human rights activists and journalists who are being persecuted,” as well as employees of the International Historical and Educational Society “Memorial” (“MM”) and the Human Rights Center “Memorial”, the decision to ban and liquidate which was made at the end of December 2021 years in Moscow.
Finally, the protesters plan to draw attention to the fate of non-profit organizations and individuals who have been declared by the Russian authorities to be so-called “foreign agents” or “undesirable organizations.”
Solidarity actions in dozens of cities around the world
Similar actions will take place on January 16 in Hannover, Nuremberg and Stuttgart. In addition, they are planned in other countries of the world: in the USA (at least in ten cities), Australia and New Zealand (in eight cities), Canada, Spain (in two cities), Belgium, France, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway , Finland and Georgia.
Poisoning of Alexei Navalny
Russian politician and opposition leader Alexei Navalny collapsed on August 20, 2020 on a plane flying from Tomsk to Moscow. After an emergency landing in Omsk, Navalny was hospitalized, and two days later he was taken to the Charité clinic in Berlin. He was in an artificial coma for 19 days.
The experts of the special laboratory of the Bundeswehr, who, at the request of the clinic, examined the samples taken from the politician, found traces of a chemical agent of the Novichok group in them. Experts from Sweden, France and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) independently came to the same conclusion. Moscow denies allegations of involvement in the assassination.
In mid-January 2021, after completing a rehabilitation course, Navalny returned to Russia, where he was immediately detained. The politician was accused of violating the provisions of a suspended sentence in the Yves Rocher case and arrested. On February 2, 2021, a court in Moscow sent the oppositionist to a colony for 2 years and 8 months, finding him guilty of “violating his obligations under conditional punishment” in the Yves Rocher case. Later, on February 20, 2021, Navalny was found guilty of libel in a “veteran’s case” and fined 850,000 rubles.
Liquidation of the FBK and Navalny’s headquarters
Last June, the Moscow City Court recognized the Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK) and the Fund for the Protection of Citizens’ Rights (FZPG) associated with Navalny, as well as the Navalny Headquarters public movement, as extremist organizations. Non-profit organizations were liquidated, and the activities of the social movement were banned. In August, the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation entered the FBK, the FZPG and the Navalny Headquarters movement into the register of banned organizations. In September, the Investigative Committee of Russia opened a criminal case on the creation of an “extremist community” against an oppositionist already in prison and his closest supporters.
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