Russia put Alexei Navalny on its federal wanted checklist late last year, according to a main decree released on the Mash Telegram network and also validated by one of Navalny’s legal representatives Wednesday.
The information comes as the opposition leader prepares to go back to Russia, in spite of numerous legal risks, after recovering in Germany from what Western scientists claimed was poisoning by the Novichok nerve agent. His attorney Vadim Kobzev informed the RBC news website that Navalny’s addition to the desired list is unlikely to affect his plans to fly to Moscow on Sunday.
The Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) mandate released Dec. 29 claims that Navalny “averted supervision” in Germany after preliminary search measures were released on Nov. 27. The decree specifies that Navalny “ceased to report to examiners, although he is obliged to do so on a regular basis” as part of his probation sentence in a 2014 embezzlement situation.
The FSIN document adds that “it was not feasible to establish the convict’s location.”
The opposition leader’s team learned that he had actually been included in the wanted list just after he revealed his forthcoming return to Russia, Kobzev stated.
Kobzev told Reuters on Thursday that Navalny might confront 3.5 years in prison when he returns.
Navalny has been in Germany since late August, when he was evacuated to Berlin in a coma two days after falling violently ill on a domestic flight in Siberia. He pledged to go back to Russia after making a full recuperation from the poisoning, which he asserts was bought by President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin denies that Navalny was infected and has claimed he is totally free to return at any moment.
Earlier this week, the FSIN asked the court to change Navalny’s 2014 put on hold sentence in the Yves Rocher case with a genuine jail term.
The FSIN claimed Thursday that it means to restrain Navalny upon his arrival to Russia prior to the main court choice regarding his suspended sentence.
Late in December, Russian private investigators opened up a criminal probe on accusations that the anti-corruption advocate had misused $4.8 countless donations to his nonprofits. The fee lugs a charge of approximately 10 years in prison.
Navalny also faces a $900,000 libel lawsuit from Putin-linked event catering mogul Yevgeny Prigozhin.