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
https://arab.news/ymq36
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
Protesters try to attack driver after truck speeds through anti-Iran demonstration in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES: Los Angeles police responded Sunday after somebody drove a U-Haul box truck down a street crowded with marchers demonstrating in support of the Iranian people, causing protesters to scramble out of the way and then run after the speeding vehicle to try to attack the driver.
The U-Haul truck, with its side mirrors shattered, was stopped several blocks away and surrounded by police cars. ABC7 news helicopter footage showed officers keeping the crowd at bay as demonstrators swarmed the truck, throwing punches at the driver and thrusting flagpoles through the driver’s side window.
The police department confirmed its officers were on the scene but didn’t immediately say if anyone was arrested.
Two people were evaluated by paramedics and both declined treatment, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.
Several hundred people had gathered Sunday afternoon in the Westwood neighborhood to protest against the Iranian theocracy. The LA police department eventually issued a dispersal order, and by 5 p.m. only about a hundred protesters were still at the scene, ABC7 reported.
Activists say a crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran has killed more than 530 people. Protesters flooded the streets in Iran’s capital of Tehran and its second-largest city again Sunday.
