A Russian court on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant for opposition politician Yulia Navalnaya, who lives in exile abroad, on charges of involvement in an “extremist organization.”
Yulia Navalnaya is the widow of Russian opposition leader and frequent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who died in February under unknown circumstances in a prison camp north of the Arctic Circle.
A spokesman for the Moscow court announced that the court had granted the prosecutor’s request for pre-trial detention, Russian news agency Interfax reported.
The pre-trial detention has initially been set at two months and will begin after Navalny’s extradition to Russia, the spokesman said. The politician has been declared a wanted person.
Navalnaya blames Russian President Vladimir Putin for her husband’s death and has announced that she wants to continue Navalny’s fight for democracy in Russia.
Navalny had been sentenced to years in prison by Russian courts, including for extremism.
Navalnaya herself lives abroad because of the danger she faces in Russia. She has so far given no indication of when she plans to return to Russia.
However, people the Kremlin sees as hostile opponents are not always safe abroad either. There have been repeated incidents in which Russian opposition figures living in exile have been the victims of attacks.
