The 2.5-hour flight of the Russian carrier Pobeda took off from Berlin Brandenburg Airport and is to land in Moscow, Vnukovo, which was heavily guarded by police on Sunday.
Navalny arrived in Germany five months ago in a coma after being poisoned by Novichok, a military-grade nervous agent developed by Russia in the Soviet years. After an extraordinary recovery, Navalny seems ready to return to his role as a thorn in the side of President Vladimir Putin, seemingly unsurpassed by his close-shaven death.
He thanked all the other passengers on the flight while he and his wife, Yulia Navalnya, boarded the plane in Berlin, according to a live stream from TV Rain.
“Thank you all, I hope we get well,” Navalny said. “And I’m sure everything will be absolutely great.”
Several Western officials and Navalny himself blamed the Russian state for the poisoning, which the Kremlin denied.
Navalny had told his supporters on social media on Wednesday to “come meet me” when he lands in Moscow. He said his decision to return home was spontaneous.
The Russian authorities reacted quickly. On Thursday, the country’s penitentiary authority (FSIN) said it was obliged to “take all measures to detain” Navalny before a court hearing.
Moscow authorities have also issued a warning to those intending to meet with Navalny at the airport, saying the city sees the rally as an unsanctioned demonstration. In recent months, Russia has passed several laws to quell protests, and authorities have arrested peaceful protesters.
In an Instagram post on Saturday, Navalny wrote a post to thank Germany, adding that the Germans were “nice, nice, friendly people.”
“Doctors and nurses. Physiotherapists and police officers. Lots of police officers. Neighbors who invited us to drink, and those who allowed us to rent. Politicians and lawyers. Merchants. Journalists. Prosecutors who questioned me at the request. “From Russia. Coaches. Teachers. And even, once, the chancellor. I had a pretty wide circle of friends here. And I can only thank them all.”
Navalny, who has been detained by Russian authorities several times, was placed on the country’s federal search list during his time in Germany at the request of FSIN, which in December accused him of violating probation in a case. years old fraud, that Navalany rejects as politically motivated.
Now, FSIN claims that Navalny violated the terms of his suspended sentence, failing to appear at the scheduled inspections.
FSIN asked the court to replace his suspended sentence with a real prison sentence. A hearing is scheduled for January 29, and if the request is met, Navalny will likely be closed for 3.5 years.
In 2014, Navalny was found guilty of fraud after he and his brother Oleg were accused of embezzling 30 million rubles ($ 540,000) from a Russian subsidiary of French cosmetics company Yves Rocher. While Navalny received a suspended sentence, his brother was jailed.
CNN’s Angela Dewan and Claudia Otto contributed to this report.