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
Germany plays down threat of US invading Greenland after talks
WASHINGTON: Germany’s top diplomat on Monday played down the risk of a US attack on Greenland, after President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to seize the island from NATO ally Denmark.
Asked after meeting Secretary of State Marco Rubio about a unilateral military move by Trump, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said: “I have no indication that this is being seriously considered.”
“Rather, I believe there is a common interest in addressing the security issues that arise in the Arctic region, and that we should and will do so,” he told reporters.
“NATO is only now in the process of developing more concrete plans on this, and these will then be discussed jointly with our US partners.”
Wadephul’s visit comes ahead of talks this week in Washington between Rubio and the top diplomats of Denmark and Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Trump in recent days has vowed that the United States will take Greenland “one way or the other” and said he can do it “the nice way or the more difficult way.”
Greenland’s government on Monday repeated that it would not accept a US takeover under “any circumstance.”
Greenland and NATO also said Monday that they were working on bolstering defense of the Arctic territory, a key concern cited by Trump.
Trump has repeatedly pointed to growing Arctic activity by Russia and China as a reason why the United States needs to take over Greenland.
But he has also spoken more broadly of his desire to expand the land mass controlled by the United States.
