VLADIMIR Putin has added Alexei Navalny’s grieving brother to his “most wanted” list, according to reports.
Only days after Putin’s top critic died in prison, Navalny’s younger brother Oleg is reportedly facing a new criminal charge in Russia.
AFPThe late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, right, and his younger brother Oleg, left, in 2018[/caption]
APOleg Navalny speaks with his mother Lyudmila, left, at a court in Moscow, Russia[/caption]
APRussian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly added Oleg to his ‘most wanted’ list[/caption]
Dad-of-two Oleg Navalny, 40, is currently believed to be abroad and has been seen in Cyprus and Germany.
His older brother Alexei, 47, died on Friday while serving a 19-year prison sentence in corrective colony FKU IK-3 in the Russian arctic.
Russia claimed the lawyer, galvanising opposition leader and Putin‘s fiercest foe, died of “sudden death syndrome”.
It was later alleged that his body had been found covered in bruises, as his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh claimed he was “murdered”.
Some reports now indicate Alexei’s younger brother Oleg is wanted over a new unspecified criminal charge, while others suggest he may be wanted on earlier charges seen as politically motivated.
The brothers were close, and Oleg has previously served time in prison due to their connection.
Last year, Oleg opened a mock punishment cell outside the Russian embassy in Berlin to highlight the terrible conditions his brother was being held in.
Oleg said at the time: “The punishment cell is the future that Putin is preparing for Russia and for the whole world.
“Instead of a view, you only have a bucket [for toilet] and a bunk [bed] attached to the wall.
“We are confident that everyone who is in prison will be released, we are fighting for this and call on the public to join the campaign for the release of Alexei Navalny and other political prisoners.”
His mother Lyudmila, 69, made an emotional address to Putin on Tuesday from outside the “Polar Wolf” jail where Alexei died.
She called on the president to release his body so they could hold a humane burial.
“Behind me is the penal colony IK-3 Polar Wolf, where my son Alexei Navalny died on February 16,” she said.
“For the fifth day I cannot see him. They don’t give me his body and they don’t even tell me where he is.
“I appeal to you, Vladimir Putin, the solution to the issue depends only on you. Let me finally see my son.
“I demand that Alexei’s body be immediately handed over so that I can bury him humanely.”
Reports later emerged that Putin allegedly had his sights set on her other son, Oleg.
Alexei’s heartbroken wife Yulia Navalnaya, 47, has accused Putin of murdering her husband with the deadly nerve agent novichok.
The president was claimed by sources to be “doing everything he can to avoid” letting anyone – except Russian cops and selected emergency responders – see his body.
The death of Alexei Navalny
VLADIMIR Putin’s most vocal domestic foe died on Friday in the Arctic prison where he was serving a 19-year prison term.
Alexei Navalny’s death was announced by the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District at 2.19 pm Moscow time on Friday, February 16.
Russia’s penitentiary service claimed Navalny “felt unwell after a walk, almost immediately losing consciousness”.
The penitentiary service stated: “The medical staff of the institution arrived immediately, and an ambulance team was called.
“All necessary resuscitation measures were carried out, which did not give positive results. Doctors of the ambulance stated the death of the convict. The causes of death are being established.”
Navalny’s mother Lyudmila, 69, was given notice of her son’s death which listed the time he died as 2.17pm local time on Friday, February 16.
Ivan Zhdanov, who directs Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, said that Navalny’s lawyer and mother were on Saturday told that he died of “sudden death syndrome”.
But an unidentified source told state-controlled RT that Navalny died from a blood clot.
Russian investigators are yet to determine the cause of Navalny’s death.
It is unclear where his body currently is, although some sources have said it was taken to a hospital morgue and showed signs of bruising.
And shocking footage appeared to show Alexei’s body being smuggled out of prison.
Russian authorities said they wouldn’t hand his body over for another two weeks “until a chemical examination is completed”, according to Alexei’s former campaign manager Ivan Zhdanov.
In an emotional video shared via Alexei’s YouTube account, widow Yulia called out the Kremlin for “lying and waiting” for the toxins in his body to disappear.
She claimed her husband was killed by “shameful” Putin without the president “ever daring to look him in the eye”.
Yulia added: “They hide his body, don’t show it to his mother, don’t give it to her to mourn.
“They lie and wait for the traces of another Putin’s novichok to disappear.”
Alexei’s death in jail was preceded by a long list of “murders” and suspicious deaths of Putin’s critics and opponents.
More than 20 have died mysteriously – with methods ranging from poisoning to plane crashes – since Putin came to power in 1999, while many others have survived alleged assassination attempts.
Putin has denied the accusations of wrongdoing.
AFPAlexei Navalny, right, and Oleg speak during the verdict announcement of their fraud trial in 2014[/caption]
APRussian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, right, and his brother Oleg[/caption]
APYulia Navalnaya, widow of Alexei Navalny, vowed on Monday to continue his fight against the Kremlin[/caption]
ReutersAlexei Navalny’s mother Lyudmila Navalnaya today appealed to Putin to ‘let me finally see my son’[/caption]
AFPAlexei Navalny hugs his wife Yulia in the courtroom in Kirov on July 19, 2013[/caption]
Life of Alexei Navalny
PUTIN’S best known opponent Alexei Navalny, 47, died in prison on Friday.
Here is a timeline that took the leader of the opposition from the face of freedom in Russia and the Kremlin’s biggest foe to a hellhole Siberian prison and onto an early grave.
June 4, 1976 — Navalny is born in a western part of the Moscow region
1997 — Graduates from Russia’s RUDN university, where he majored in law
2004 — Forms a movement against rampant over-development in Moscow
2008 — Gains notoriety for calling out corruption in state-run corporation
December 2011 — Participates in mass protests sparked by reports of widespread rigging of Russia’s election, and is arrested and jailed for 15 days for “defying a government official”
March 2012 – Further mass protests break out and Navalny accuses key Kremlin cronies of corruption
July 2012 — Russia’s Investigative Committee charges Navalny with embezzlement. He rejects the claims and says they are politically motivated
2013 — Navalny runs for mayor in Moscow
July 2013 — A court in Kirov convicts Navalny of embezzlement in the Kirovles case, sentencing him to five years in prison – he appeals and is allowed to continue campaign
September 2013 — Official results show Navalny finishes second in the mayor’s race
February 2014 — Navalny is placed under house arrest
December 2014 — Navalny and his brother, Oleg, are found guilty of fraud
February 2016 — The European Court of Human Rights rules that Russia violated Navalny’s right to a fair trial
November 2016 — Russia’s Supreme Court overturns Navalny’s sentence
December 2016 — Navalny announces he will run in Russia’s 2018 presidential election
February 2017 — The Kirov court retries Navalny and upholds his five-year suspended sentence from 2013
April 2017 – Survives an assassination attempt he blames on Kremlin
December 2017 — Russia’s Central Electoral Commission bars him from running for president
August, 2020 – Navalny falls into a coma on a flight and his team suspects he was poisoned. German authorities confirm he was poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent.
Jan 2021 — After five months in Germany, Navalny is arrested upon his return to Russia
Feb 2021 — A Moscow court orders Navalny to serve 2 ½ years in prison
June 2021 — A Moscow court shuts down Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his extended political network
Feb 2022 — Russia invades Ukraine
March 2022 — Navalny is sentenced to an additional nine-year term for embezzlement and contempt of court
2023 — Over 400 Russian doctors sign an open letter to Putin, urging an end to what it calls abuse of Navalny, following reports that he was denied basic medication & suffering from slow poisoning
April, 2023 — Navalny from inside prison says he was facing new extremism and terrorism charges that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life
Aug 2023 – A court in Russia extends Navalny’s prison sentence by 19 years
Dec 2023 – He disappears from his prison as his team fear he could be assassination. He then reappears weeks later in one of Siberia’s toughest prisons – the ‘Polar Wolf’ colony
