Navalny death: Why did anti-Putin campaigner leave Germany for Russia in 2021?

Alexei Navalny's death has sparked dismay around the world, with some people asking why he returned to Russia in 2021.

The opposition politician died in a Russian prison in the Arctic Circle this week, with world leaders pointing the finger at president Vladimir Putin.

Navalny had already survived being poisoned with the Russian-made Novichok nerve agent in 2020, and recovered in a hospital in Germany. He and his supporters blamed the attack on the Kremlin.

Nonetheless, months later, at the start of 2021, Navalny flew straight back to Russia, into the hands of the police, who detained him at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on charges of embezzlement, a 2014 case he says was made up.

Navalny was the head of Russia's Anti-Corruption Foundation, and was a thorn in Putin's side for several years, organising protests and carrying out exposés of government corruption.

He even managed to unseat the president's allies in local elections, and ended up being jailed and poisoned.

The politician knew what would happen when he returned to Russia, but said at the time that he never doubted he would get to his homeland.

Weeks before leaving Germany, he said: “I understand that Putin hates me, I understand that people in the Kremlin are ready to kill.”

“The question ‘to return or not’ never stood before me,” he added in an Instagram post in early 2021.

“Mainly because I never left. I ended up in Germany, having arrived in an intensive care box, for one reason: they tried to kill me.”

He was eventually transferred to the Arctic prison in Siberia in December, where he was held until his death.

Navalny's death is likely to send shockwaves through parts of Russian society, amid an ongoing crackdown on dissidence in the country that has been turbocharged by its war with Ukraine.

It has also sparked international outrage, with many world leaders – including US vice president Kamala Harris – pointing the finger at Putin.

And president Joe Biden has previously told media that the consequences would be "devastating for Russia" if Navalny died in prison.

If that turns out to happen then Navalny's decision to return, while costing him his life, will be proven right.

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