A Moscow court has issued an arrest warrant for the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on extremism charges, state media reported.
The TASS news agency said the absence charges filed against Yulia Navalnaya, who lives outside Russia, are related to her alleged “participation in extremist society.”
Navalny has been Russia’s most important opposition leader over the past decade. He died in February in an Arctic Circle prison. Russian authorities said he died of natural causes, but his widow said Navalny was “tortured, starved, cut off and killed” by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Navalny has served 19 years in prison on extremism charges that are widely believed to be politically motivated.
Responding to the warrant for her arrest, Yulia Navalnaya posted on Is a murderer and war criminal.
“His residence was in prison, not in some cozy cell with a TV in The Hague, but in Russia – in the same colony and the same two-by-three-meter cell where he killed Alexei.
A Moscow court ruled that Ms Navalnaya, who has vowed to continue her husband’s job, should be remanded in custody and declared wanted.
The decision means she faces arrest if she sets foot in Russia.
The charges may be related to a June 2021 ruling by a Moscow court that outlawed three groups linked to Navalny and labeled them “extremists”.
Ms Navalnaya was unable to attend His funeral will be held in March.
Since then, she has met with many Western leaders, including US President Biden.
This month, she was elected president of the U.S.-based Human Rights Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting and protecting human rights around the world.
She said she would use her role and intensify her husband’s fight against Putin.
