Russia issues arrest warrant for Yulia Navalnaya

Russian authorities issued an arrest warrant in absentia for Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, on Tuesday.

A court in Moscow accused her of being part of an “extremist” group. She currently lives outside Russia but would face immediate arrest if she were to return.

The court said it had “approved the request of the investigators and decided a preventive measure in the form of detention for two months.”

Navalnaya has vowed to continue the work of her late husband who was considered the leading opposition figure against President Vladimir Putin.

Navalny faced a similar arrest warrant while receiving treatment for Novichok poisoning in Berlin. When he returned to Russia, he was arrested and sentenced over extremism charges to a 19-year prison sentence.

He died in an Arctic prison in February this year. He was 47 years old.

Navalnaya, along with the Russian Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), won the DW Freedom of Speech in May.

“During these years, Putin has suppressed independent media. And he has tried to silence anyone who said what he didn’t like. But he failed. Yes, he killed my husband, Alexei Navalny. But he didn’t silence him and his ideas,” she said at the award ceremony in Berlin.