MOSCOW (Reuters) – Investigators searched the homes of three lawyers for jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on suspicion of involvement in an “extremist community”, one of Navalny’s close allies said on social media on Friday.
Ivan Zhdanov said the investigations of lawyers Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexei Liptser were part of a campaign to further isolate Navalny, who is imprisoned in a penal colony in the Vladimir region, east of Moscow.
Navalny is due to be moved to a different, “special regime” colony after being convicted in August of a range of charges relating to “extremist” activity and sentenced to an additional 19 years, on top of 11-1/2 years he was already serving.
He rejects all the accusations against him as politically motivated and designed to silence his criticism of President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin refuses to comment on his case or his treatment by prison authorities.
Despite his imprisonment since 2021, Navalny has been able to maintain an active presence on social media via his lawyers.
Another Navalny ally, Leonid Volkov, posted on X that the three lawyers faced up to six years in prison if found guilty of belonging to an extremist group, “just for being Navalny’s lawyers”.
“This is an act of intimidation with a clear intention to strengthen Navalny’s isolation from the outer world,” Volkov said.
“Navalny will be transferred to the ‘special security’ penal facility anytime soon because of his new 19 years ‘extremism’ sentence. But his lawyers will not be able to visit him there or even to find out his whereabouts if they’re locked up themselves. Terrifying,” Volkov added.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Alexander Marrow and Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Christina Fincher)
