A court in Moscow has issued an arrest warrant for the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on charges of extremism, according to state media.

The charges brought against Yulia Navalnaya, who lives outside Russia, in absentia are to do with her alleged “participation in an extremist society”, Tass news agency said.

Navalny was Russia’s most significant opposition leader of the past decade. He died in February in an Arctic Circle jail. Russian authorities said he died of natural causes - but his widow said Navalny had been “tortured, starved, cut off and killed” by Russia’s president Vladimir Putin.

Navalny had been serving 19 years on extremism charges that were widely seen as politically motivated.

Responding to the arrest warrant against her, Yulia Navalnaya posted on X: "When you write about this, please do not forget to write the main thing: Vladimir Putin is a murderer and a war criminal.

    • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      My impression from reading Institute for the Study of War’s blogs is that Putin is a “moderate” in the perverted sense. There are actually much worse people, with real power in Russia, that could conceivably take power, and he kinda keeps everyone in line.

      So maybe the people in a position to depose him have no interest in doing so, not just for their own interests but because the resulting power vacuum would not be fun. And I’m sure he makes the possibility extremely difficult.

      There is one guy who tried, and actually came surprisingly close: Yevgeny Prigozhin. He started a small rebellion, and it might’ve worked with a slightly different roll of the dice. He seemed kinda populist and Trumpy to me, with a lot of grassroots support from the more militant factions in Russian politics, especially on social media… if Trump was the leader of a notorious mercenary outfit.

      He died in a plane crash exactly 2 months later. I’m sure its a total coincidence.

    • LavenderDay3544@lemmings.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      6 months ago

      Inside Russia that person would die under suspicious circumstances as many already have. Outside Russia paying to have someone killed is at least conspiracy to commit homicide which is a really damn serious crime especially when the person you’re conspiring to kill is a head of state. Oh and the Russians have had people killed outside Russia when they felt the need to so you’re not really safe anywhere once you’re on their hit list.

      • volvoxvsmarla @lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        6 months ago

        Oh and the Russians have had people killed outside Russia when they felt the need to so you’re not really safe anywhere once you’re on their hit list.

        Well to be fair, I’d argue that’s not an argument. People are willing to go to prison and die for their beliefs (case and point Navalny). So what is your own destiny or death when you can save your family, friends, and country from this dictator. I’m sure you would find a willing kamikaze assassin.

    • Plastic_Ramses@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      Short sighted people are all the same.

      In the same way a poor person refuses to raise taxes on the rich.

      A rich person refuses to put bounties on the insanely rich because one day they would like to be in that position.