MOSCOW: A court in Russia on Tuesday ordered the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to be arrested in absentia, part of a sweeping Kremlin crackdown on the opposition.
Moscow’s Basmanny District Court ruled to arrest Yulia Navalnaya, who lives abroad, on charges of alleged involvement in an extremist group.
Navalny, the fiercest political foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in February in an Arctic penal colony while serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges that he condemned as politically motivated. Authorities said he became ill after a walk but otherwise gave no details.
Navalny was imprisoned after returning to Moscow in January 2021 from Germany, where he had been recuperating from the 2020 nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.
Navalnaya has accused Putin of her husband’s death and vowed to continue his activities. Russian officials have vehemently denied involvement in the poisoning and death.
Her spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh, in a post on social media platform X described the court’s ruling as a recognition of Navalnaya’s “merits.”
Russian authorities haven’t specified the charges against Navalnaya. They appear to relate to authorities designating 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 leave Russia.
A number of journalists have been jailed on similar charges in recent months in relation to their coverage of Navalny.
The Kremlin’s crackdown on opposition activists, independent journalists and ordinary Russians critical of it has intensified after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia issues warrant for exiled opposition figure Yulia Navalnaya: court
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Russia issues warrant for exiled opposition figure Yulia Navalnaya: court
- Moscow’s Basmanny District Court ruled to arrest Yulia Navalnaya, who lives abroad, on charges of alleged involvement in an extremist group
- Navalny, the fiercest political foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in February
DR Congo says M23 withdrawal from key city a ‘distraction’
- “The son, M23, offers itself in sacrifice before the American mediator to protect the father, Rwanda,” Muyaya said
- The announcement is a “non-event, a diversion, a distraction”
KINSHASA: The Congolese government on Wednesday said the M23 armed group’s recent announcement that it would withdraw troops from the key eastern city of Uvira was a “distraction.”
The Rwanda-backed militia seized the strategic city near the border with Burundi last Wednesday, days after the Congolese and Rwandan governments signed a peace deal — an agreement US President Donald Trump had hailed as a “great miracle.”
“The son, M23, offers itself in sacrifice before the American mediator to protect the father, Rwanda,” Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said on Wednesday.
The announcement is a “non-event, a diversion, a distraction... We are waiting for the withdrawal of Rwandan troops from all parts of our territory,” he added.
The M23’s latest advance has thrown the future of the peace process into doubt and raised fears of a wider regional war.
Its capture of Uvira — a city of several hundred thousand people — allowed it to control the land border with Burundi and cut the DRC off from military support from its neighbor.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Saturday that Rwanda had clearly violated the peace agreement it signed with its neighbor on December 4, and vowed unspecified “action” in response.
A day earlier, US ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz accused Rwanda of “leading the region toward more instability and toward war.”
Leader of the M23’s political branch announced Tuesday in a statement that the group would “unilaterally withdraw its forces from the city of Uvira, as requested by the US mediators.”
M23 fighters were still present in Uvira on Wednesday, according to residents contacted by AFP.
The DRC’s mineral-rich east has been ravaged by three decades of conflict. Since taking up arms again in 2021, the M23 has seized swathes of territory, leading to a spiralling humanitarian crisis.
While Kigali has never explicitly acknowledged backing the armed group, Washington has directly blamed Rwanda for the M23’s capture of Uvira.
Muyaya accused Rwandan President Paul Kagame of seeking to “entrench his control over this part of our country through violence,” arguing these actions “worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian situation.”
At least 85,000 refugees have fled into Burundi since the advance, with the numbers rising daily, Burundian officials said Tuesday.
