Russian court orders arrest of Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya in absentia | News about Vladimir Putin

Yulia Navalnaya is accused of joining an “extremist” group. If she returns to Russia from exile, she faces at least two months in prison.

A court in Moscow has ordered a two-month prison sentence for Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the late Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

The court accused Navalnaya, who lives in exile, of belonging to an “extremist” group. The ruling means she faces arrest if she enters the country.

Navalnaya, 47, stepped into the spotlight after her husband’s death in an Arctic penal colony in February, declaring she would continue the fight for what Navalny called the “beautiful Russia of the future.”

In an article on X, Navalnaya urged her supporters on Tuesday not to focus on the court decision against her, but on the fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“When you write about it, please do not forget to write the most important thing: Vladimir Putin is a murderer and a war criminal,” she wrote.

“His place is in prison, and not somewhere in The Hague, in a comfortable cell with a television, but in Russia – in the same (penal) colony and the same 2 by 3 meter cell in which he killed Alexei.”

The Kremlin denied ordering Navalny’s killing.

“Fight against Putin”

Since her husband’s death, Navalnaya has met a number of Western heads of state and government, including US President Joe Biden in San Francisco.

The U.S.-based nonprofit Human Rights Foundation named Navalnaya its chair last week and she said she would use her new role to intensify her husband’s fight against Putin.

“We will bring on board everything that can be useful in the fight against Putin and in the fight for the beautiful Russia of the future,” she said.

Navalnaya left Russia in 2021 and has lived in Germany since her husband’s death.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Navalnaya was continuing her husband’s legacy and condemned the Moscow court’s verdict as an “arrest warrant against the desire for freedom and democracy.”

The Russian authorities have not specified the charges against Navalnaya. They appear to relate to the authorities’ classification of Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation as an “extremist organization.”

The 2021 court ruling banning Navalny’s group forced his close associates and team members to leave Russia.

Navalny was detained after returning to Moscow from Germany in January 2021, where he was recovering from nerve agent poisoning in 2020, for which he blamed the Kremlin.

He died in the Arctic penal colony Polar Wolf – 1,900 km northeast of Moscow – where the 47-year-old was serving a 19-year sentence on various charges. His mother was told by prison officials that he had died of “sudden cardiac death”.

Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh claimed he was “murdered.” Navalny’s death separated Putin from his greatest political enemy, who organized mass protests against the Kremlin and fought against corruption.