Julia Navalny, the wife of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, left Russia today (Wednesday). This is according to the Interfax news agency, which was based on a source close to the couple.
According to the report, Navalny took off from Moscow’s Domodedovo airport in the direction of the city of Frankfurt on the Main. It will be recalled that Alexei Navalny was arrested on landing in Moscow on January 18, after completing his rehabilitation process from the Novichuk poisoning at the Charita Hospital in Berlin. About a week ago, a court in Moscow sentenced him to 2.8 years in prison after he was convicted in the “Yves Rocher” case in which he was accused of embezzling funds in 2014. As a result, at the end of January and on the day of the sentencing on February 2, mass demonstrations took place across Russia for the release of Navalny, in which more than 100,000 people participated and thousands were arrested, using violence by police forces.
Julia Navalny took part in the big demonstration that took place on January 23 in Moscow and was stopped for a short time. On February 1, a court in Moscow fined her 20,000 rubles for “participating in an uncoordinated protest event, which disrupted pedestrian and vehicular traffic.” It is quite possible that her decision to leave Russia stems from the fear of being arrested once again, and this time for a longer time.
Meanwhile, Duma and Federation Council leaders have proposed amendments to the law to ban “foreign agents and their relatives from running for office in Russia at all levels”. This will prevent Julia Navalny from running in the Duma elections in 2021. One of the supporters of the proposal is Sergei Navrov, head of the United Russia faction in the Duma (the party affiliated with President Vladimir Putin and former Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev).
It should be noted that Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said yesterday that representatives of the Anti-Corruption Foundation set up by Navalny (FBK, recognized as a non-profit foreign agent in Russia) are NATO influence agents and receive instructions from the North Atlantic Alliance to undermine political and social stability. .