Russian court orders arrest of Yulia Navalnaya

A Russian court ordered the arrest of the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny during a hearing on Tuesday. The hearing was held in the absence of the defendant and is part of the Kremlin’s comprehensive crackdown on the opposition.

Yulia Navalnaya, who lives abroad, faces arrest if she returns to Russia.

The Basmanny District Court of Moscow decided to arrest Navalnaya on suspicion of membership in an extremist group.

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Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest political opponent, died in February in an Arctic penal colony while serving a 19-year prison sentence on charges of extremism, which he had condemned as politically motivated. Authorities said he fell ill after a walk but otherwise released no details about Navalny’s death.

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.

Navalnaya has blamed Putin for her husband’s death and vowed to continue his activities. Russian officials have vehemently denied involvement in Navalny’s poisoning and death.

Navalnaya mocked the court’s order on social media platform Xand said that Putin should be prosecuted. Her spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh called the court’s verdict a recognition of her “merits.”

Read more: “Share my anger.” Read Yulia Navalnaya’s first interview since her husband’s death in prison

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

Russian authorities have not specified the charges against Navalnaya, which 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.

In recent months, several journalists have been detained on similar charges in connection with their reporting on Navalny.

The Kremlin’s crackdown on opposition activists, independent journalists and ordinary Russians critical of it has intensified following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.