Russia puts brother of jailed Putin critic Navalny on wanted list

Authorities want Oleg Navalny’s suspended sentence to be converted into jail time

Oleg Navalny pictured in Omsk, Russia, on 21 August 2020 (AFP/Getty)

The brother of the jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been placed on a wanted list in Russia, interior ministry documents show.

Oleg Navalny, whose whereabouts are unknown, was given a 12-month suspended sentence last year after being charged with breaching coronavirus restrictions.

The 38-year-old was prosecuted for attending a demonstration against the imprisonment of his sibling, which is alleged to have been politically motivated.

Citing the younger Navalny’s failure to comply with restrictions imposed on him, authorities now want to convert his suspended sentence to jail time. The Federal Penitentiary Service will ask a Moscow court to increase his punishment on 18 February, according to his lawyer.

The sibling of the vocal Putin critic was released in 2018 after spending 42 months in prison for alleged fraud, a charge also levelled against his older brother. Critics say the lawsuit was used by the Kremlin in an attempt to stifle dissent.

The latest move against Oleg Navalny comes more than a year after his brother was taken into custody after returning from Germany, where he had recovered from his poisoning by nerve agent in Siberia in 2020. The attack is presumed to have been ordered by the Putin regime.

To mark the end of his first year in prison, the 45-year-old took to social media last Monday. “I don’t regret it for a second,” he said, referring to his decision to head home.

He expressed his pride in confronting the Kremlin, adding that he had not been able to take “a single step” in  Russia as a “free person”.

Months after his political network was outlawed, the older Navalny and some of his allies have recently been placed on a terrorist list by Moscow.

"This latest designation represents a new low in Russia’s continuing crackdown on independent civil society," the US State Department said on Tuesday, while calling for Mr Navalny’s immediate release.

Meanwhile, the EU said earlier this month that the “continued repression against the critical voices in Russian society" is unacceptable.

The Kremlin’s assault against free speech escalated last year when it banned Memorial, the country’s leading human rights group.

Additional reporting by Reuters