Moscow: A Russian court has issued an arrest warrant against Yulia Navalnaya, wife of fierce Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny who died in an Arctic prison in February. It accused Navalnaya, who lives outside Russia, of participating in an "extremist organization", Reuters reported.
Navalny was President Vladimir Putin's main opponent and his organizations have been outlawed in Russia, labeled an "extremist" group, and put on an official "terrorist" list.
A court said it had "approved the request of the investigators and decided a preventive measure in the form of detention for two months". The 47-year-old Navalnaya, who has pledged to continue the work of her deceased husband, slammed the warrant and Putin in a statement, saying, "Vladimir Putin is a killer and a war criminal. He belongs in prison."
Asking her supporters to focus not on the court order against her, but on the battle against Putin, she wrote on X: “His place is in prison and not somewhere in The Hague, in a cozy cell with a TV, but in Russia – in the same [penal] colony and the same 2-by-3 meter cell in which he killed Alexey.”
Navalnaya "was arrested (in absentia!) for 'being a member of an extremist community' by the infamous Basmanny court of Moscow," wrote Leonid Volkov, Navalny's former chief of staff, on X. "Quite a recognition of Yulia's determination to continue Alexei’s fight!" he added.
During the Russian elections in March, Navalnaya called for mass protests against Putin by forming long queues outside voting stations. Since her husband’s death, she has met several Western leaders, including US President Joe Biden in San Francisco. Navalnaya left Russia in 2021 and has lived in Germany since her husband’s death.
