A Russian court on Tuesday ordered the arrest in absentia of Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexey Navalny, a key figure in Russia’s political opposition, accusing her of “participation in an extremist group.”
The court order against Ms Navalnaya came five months after her husband left Russia in 2021. Death He was held in obscurity in Russia’s harsh prisons. In August 2020, after a near-fatal poisoning attempt, he returned to Russia and was jailed on a number of trumped-up charges.
Ms Navalnaya has repeatedly accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of murdering her husband and Vow to continue She has become an outspoken critic of Russia’s war in Ukraine, using tactics like Missile hit On Monday, a children’s hospital in Kiev blamed the bloodshed on Putin and the Kremlin.
The Basmany District Court press office did not specify the reason for the charge when announcing the arrest warrant, but it appears to be related to her role in helping run Navalny’s opposition organization. Although Navalnaya avoided any overt political role when her husband was alive, she had long served as chairwoman of the advisory board of her husband’s anti-corruption foundation.
The foundation, which has itself been labeled an “extremist” and now operates as an international organization in exile in Lithuania, has repeatedly embarrassed Putin and other senior Kremlin officials by publishing estates, yachts and other financial assets they acquired while in office.
The order to arrest Navalnaya came from the Investigative Committee, and the court statement said her name would be added to an international wanted list. Navalnaya left Russia in 2021. If she returns to Russia, she will be arrested, the statement said.
Ms. Navalnaya responded to the court’s decision with a hint of sarcasm, noting that In an article on social media platform X The court did not take the usual interim measures such as “foreign agent” and directly labeled it as “extremist”.
“When you write this, please do not forget to write the main point: Vladimir Putin is a murderer and a war criminal,” Navalnaya wrote. “He is in prison, and not in some cozy cell with a TV in The Hague, but in Russia — in the same prison, in the two-by-three-meter cell where he murdered Alexei.”
Ms. Navalnaya announced in April that she was helping edit a manuscript her husband wrote in prison about his political career that is expected to be released in the United States and elsewhere in October.
This month, she also became President He will become chairman of the Human Rights Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes human rights, succeeding Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, who just completed a three-year term.
Milana Mazaeva Contributed reporting.
