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A Russian court docket has accused the widow of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny of “extremism” and ordered her arrest if she ever returned house.
Yulia Navalnaya, who not lives in Russia, has promised to proceed her husband’s work after his demise in a Russian jail earlier this 12 months and is now chair of his Anti-Corruption Basis, an investigative group additionally primarily based overseas.
Russia outlawed the group in addition to Navalny’s nationwide community of activists in 2021, labelling them extremist, on a par with terrorist organisations akin to Isis. Quite a few individuals have since been jailed for working with or supporting the group.
“Vladimir Putin is a assassin and a struggle felony,” Navalnaya mentioned, responding to information of her arrest order. “His place is in jail, and never someplace in The Hague, in a comfortable cell with a TV, however in Russia — in the identical colony and the identical two by three-metre cell wherein he killed Alexei.”
Navalny, Putin’s most vocal critic for a few years, died in a jail colony within the Russian Arctic in February, the place he had suffered brutal therapy and was often positioned in solitary confinement.
The Basmanny court docket in Moscow mentioned Navalnaya had “absconded” and positioned her on a global wished listing.
Ought to she return or be extradited to Russia, she can be imprisoned for an preliminary two months, whereas the investigation continued and the case moved to trial, the court docket mentioned in an announcement.
“The time period is calculated from the second of extradition . . . or from the second of detention on the territory of the Russian Federation,” the court docket added.
Regardless of staying largely out of the limelight when her husband was alive, Navalnaya swiftly took on his mantle after his demise, recording a video for his widespread YouTube channel wherein she known as on Russians to “share her fury” and vowed to proceed his combat.
Since then, she has met with a string of world leaders to foyer for extra sanctions on Russia and spoken at numerous political occasions, together with addressing the European parliament. She has additionally been appointed head of the Human Rights Basis, a global group.
Navalnaya, 47, met her future husband whereas on vacation in Turkey in 1998. She labored briefly in banking and commerce however quickly gave up her profession, realising that her husband’s rising reputation as a Putin critic made holding a separate job unimaginable. “Wherever I may go, it’d be powerful for the organisation and for me,” she mentioned in a uncommon interview in 2014.
The couple have two kids, who’re additionally residing overseas.
