Russia's prison authority to seek Kremlin critic Navalny's arrest before court hearing - RIA

MOSCOW, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Russia's prison authority said on Thursday it would seek to arrest Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny before a court hearing he is due to attend once he returns to Russia, the RIA news agency reported.

Navalny, a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, announced plans on Wednesday to fly back to Russia this weekend for the first time since he was poisoned in August, despite the risk of being jailed on his return from Germany.

(Reporting by Tom Balmforth, Polina Ivanova and Anton Zverev; editing by John Stonestreet)