This was the moment Navalny boarded a plane from Berlin to Moscow, his first return home since being near fatally poisoned by a novel chalk nerve toxin, a version of events the Kremlin rejects.

You are very, very Krasner.

Yes, Fortune.

Fortune shares left.

He would, but he didn't get far.

He was detained at passport control and said goodbye to his wife.

Now he's being held in this Moscow prison in pretrial detention, despite calls from Western countries on the U.

N.

To free him.

The son of an army officer, the 44 year old grew up in Obninsk, about 60 miles southwest of Moscow, has a degree in law and spent time in the United States on a fellowship at Yale.

Navalny is best known in Russia for producing detailed investigations into corruption.

His nickname for the ruling United Russia party, the party of crooks and thieves, has become common coinage among his supporters.

His calls for restrictions on immigration on criticism of what some viewed as his overly nationalist views led to his expulsion from the liberal Yabloko opposition party in 2000 and seven during anti Putin demonstrations.

In 2011, he was one of the first protest leaders arrested in 2013.

Navalny ran for mayor of Moscow.

He lost to the Kremlin backed choice but still got 27% of the vote, despite little to no coverage on the state controlled media outlets.

Since then, Alexey Navalny has been barred from running for office.

Instead, he uses social media to mobilize crowds of mostly young protesters.

Putin and the Kremlin make a point of never saying his name.

Navalny has been detained countless times for organizing public rallies on Prosecuted repeatedly.

He on his supporters have also been physically attacked.

In 2017, a green antiseptic die was thrown at him, causing him to temporarily lose sight in one eye.

In August 2020 he fell ill on a flight from Siberia.

He was flown to Berlin and treated for what tests showed to be Nava chock, a poison developed in the Soviet Union.

A joint media investigation said it had identified a team of assassins from Russia's FSB security service.