Russian court orders arrest of Navalny’s widow in crackdown.

Photo: Alexey Malgavko / Reuters 

A Russian court has ordered the arrest of Yulia Navalnaya, widow of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, during a hearing conducted in absentia on Tuesday. This action is part of a broader Kremlin crackdown on opposition figures.

Navalnaya, who currently resides abroad, will face arrest upon her return to Russia. The Basmanny District Court in Moscow has ruled to arrest her on charges of alleged involvement in an extremist group.

Alexei Navalny, a prominent political adversary of Russian President Vladimir Putin, passed away in February while serving a 19-year sentence in an Arctic penal colony on extremism charges that he condemned as politically motivated. Authorities claim he became ill after a walk but have provided no further details regarding his death. Navalny was imprisoned after returning to Moscow in January 2021 from Germany, where he had been recovering from a 2020 nerve agent poisoning that he attributed to the Kremlin.

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Navalnaya has publicly blamed Putin for her husband's death and has vowed to continue his activism. Russian officials have vehemently denied any involvement in Navalny's poisoning and subsequent death.

Mocking the court’s order on the social media platform X, Navalnaya stated that it is Putin who should be prosecuted. “His place is in prison, and not somewhere in The Hague, in a cozy cell with a TV, but in Russia,” she wrote, suggesting that he should be placed in the same colony and cramped cell “in which he killed Alexei.” Her spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh, described the court’s ruling as a recognition of Navalnaya’s “merits.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also commented on X, acknowledging that Navalnaya is carrying on her husband’s legacy and denouncing the Moscow court’s ruling.

Russian authorities have not specified the exact charges against Navalnaya. They appear to be connected to the designation of Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption as an extremist organization. The 2021 court ruling that outlawed Navalny’s group forced his close associates and team members to flee Russia.

In recent months, numerous journalists have been jailed on similar charges related to their coverage of Navalny.

The Kremlin’s crackdown on opposition activists, independent journalists, and ordinary Russians critical of the government has intensified since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

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