The reason would be the “breach of an article of the Penal Code.” It comes a day after the Ministry of Justice also added him to its list of foreign agents.
The Russian Ministry of the Interior declared this Tuesday in search and capture of Vladimir Milov, politician and follower of the opposition Alexei Navalny, sentenced to nine years in prison for fraud and contempt.
The Ministry’s database has thus included their data and has indicated that the reason for the search is due to “non-compliance with an article of the Criminal Code”, although it does not specify which one, according to information collected by Russian state agencies.
His inclusion on the list comes a day after the Ministry of Justice also added him to its list of foreign agents. Milov, who lives outside of Russia, has recently criticized the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24.
The Russian law on foreign agents was enacted by Russian President Vladimir Putin in November 2017 and, according to Moscow, is intended to create a registry that includes individuals financed by “foreign sources” and carrying out political activities in Russia. The list already includes numerous media outlets, NGOs, and other types of organizations that the government considers a danger to its security.
In addition, the regulations provide for fines for those who fail to identify themselves as such despite appearing in the corresponding registry, as well as penalties of up to two years in prison for repeat offenders.
Separately, Alexei Navalny on Tuesday lost an appeal challenging prison officials’ decision to label him as “inclined to commit crimes of a terrorist or extremist nature.”
Navalny, who has been behind bars since January 2021, was first flagged by prison authorities as a flight risk, which involved additional checks and inspections in prison. But in October of last year, officials replaced that label with “terrorist or extremist.”
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Alexei Navalny (REUTERS)
“I was worried that I would be required to kiss portraits of (President Vladimir) Putin and learn quotes from (his main associate Dmitry) Medvedev, but there was no need. It’s just that my bunk now has a label describing me as a terrorist,” Navalny commented, in his usual sarcasm, about the move at the time in a social media post.
He and his defense team filed an appeal challenging the label, but a panel of judges in the Russian region of Vladimir, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) east of Moscow, rejected the appeal on Tuesday and decided to uphold the designation.
Navalny, Putin’s fiercest foe, was arrested in January 2021 upon returning from Germany, where he was recovering from nerve agent poisoning he blames the Kremlin and received a two-and-a-half-year sentence for violating freedom. conditional.
In March, Navalny was sentenced to nine years in prison for fraud and contempt of court, charges he rejected on political grounds. The move marked an attempt by authorities to keep him behind bars for as long as possible.
The new sentence followed a year-long Kremlin crackdown on Navalny’s supporters, other opposition activists, and independent journalists, in which authorities appear eager to quell any dissent.
Navalny’s close associates faced criminal charges and left the country, and his group’s political infrastructure, an anti-corruption foundation, and a national network of regional offices were destroyed after being labeled an extremist organization.
Navalny and several of his associates have been added to Russia’s registry of terrorists and extremists.
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