Moscow court issues arrest warrant for Navalny’s widow

Yulia Navalnaya has been charged with being a member of an extremist organization, according to a press release issued by the city’s judiciary

Moscow’s Basmanny Court has issued an arrest warrant for Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the late opposition figure Alexey Navalny, the city courts’ press service revealed on Tuesday. She has been charged with being part of an extremist group, it said.

The court “upheld a motion [submitted] by investigators and ordered [Navalnaya] to be put into custody for two months,” the statement published on Telegram said. This would begin from the moment of her extradition to Russia or if she is detained within the country, it added.

The court said Navalnaya had “evaded” law enforcement authorities. Under Russian law, membership in an extremist organization is punishable with a fine of between 300,000 and 600,000 rubles ($3,450 and $6,900) or up to six years behind bars.

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The court’s official statement did not elaborate on which specific actions taken by Navalnaya had led to the charges, only that she had participated in an “extremist community.” The Russian news agency Interfax reported, citing sources, that her case is related to her participation in structures founded by her late husband.

Several organizations created by Navalny, including his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), have been designated extremist in Russia in recent years. The opposition figure was imprisoned in 2021 for violating the terms of an earlier suspended sentence.

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He was handed an additional nine-year sentence in early 2022 for contempt of court and a second fraud conviction. In August 2023, he was sentenced to an additional 19 years on multiple extremism-related charges including creating an extremist group, endorsing extremism, financing such activities, and luring minors into them, as well as rehabilitating Nazi ideology.

Russian courts had previously issued similar arrest warrants against a number of Navalny’s allies, including his former right-hand man, Leonid Volkov, who had earlier headed the FBK, as well as the organization’s current head, Maria Pevchikh. None of them are currently in Russia.

Navalnaya herself also left Russia back in 2021 together with her children after the arrest of her husband. She has lived abroad ever since. In March 2024, she pledged to continue her husband’s work.

Navalny died at a penal colony in February while serving his sentence. The prison authorities said the 47-year-old suddenly fell ill after a walk and collapsed, and efforts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful. The FBK stated that the death certificate provided to Navalny’s mother said he had died of natural causes.