First modification: 26/12/2020 – 03:33Last modification: 26/12/2020 – 03:38
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Russian lawyer Liubov Sobol was arrested on Friday on charges of breaking and entering, after the mother-in-law of an alleged spy related to the Navalny poisoning case accused her of pushing her to break into her apartment. Russia’s Investigative Committee spokeswoman Yulia Ivanova reported that the charges can carry a prison sentence of up to two years in jail.
Sobol, a lawyer with the Anti-Corruption Fund, was arrested on Friday morning in a police raid on her home and was questioned about the events. Along with her, two other men belonging to the organization led by Navalny, a lawyer and anti-corruption activist who is recovering in Germany from the aftermath of his poisoning, have been arrested.
Sobol was already arrested on Monday and fined 1,000 rubles for disobedience to authority when she was in the vicinity of the house of the alleged spy. The identity of the latter was recently uncovered by Navalny in a recording that the opponent allegedly obtained after posing as a high-level official. This is Konstantin Kudriavtsev, a chemical expert from the FSB (former KGB).
Sobol’s article is not arresting. Nevertheless, she – a mother with a small child – is ostentatiously closed for two days in order to. tell everyone: do not dig into this matter. Don’t you dare go to our poisonous killers and ring their doors. These killers are inviolable.
— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) December 25, 2020
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“They are locking up the mother of a little girl for two days to tell everyone: do not investigate this case. Don’t you dare mess with our killers and poisoners and knock on their doors. These killers are untouchable,” Navalny wrote in Twitter about the arrest.
A journalistic investigation points directly to the FSB
The telephone conversation took place hours before on December 14, the digital medium Bellingcat, with its partners “Der Spiegel” and CNN, together with Navalny, denounced that a group of experts in chemical weapons from the FSB was involved in his poisoning. According to the investigation, at least three FSB agents flew to the Siberian city of Novosibirsk a week before the poisoning.
It also shows that the officers of the group arrived in Tinsk – where Navalny was staying – on August 19, a day before the poisoning. The FSB issued a statement calling the conversation published by the opponent “false” and considered it a “provocation” orchestrated in order to “discredit” the security service.
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The substance with which Navalny was poisoned – which left him in a coma for 18 days – is the lethal agent novichok, developed in the 1970s and 1980s by the Soviet Union. Putin and the rest of the Russian authorities have flatly denied having been part of any operation that had the purpose of assassinating the opponent of the Kremlin.
Sobol, old acquaintance of the Kremlin
In addition to being a lawyer, Sobol has tried to build a political career as an independent. Last summer he was part of the list of candidates for mayor of Moscow who were vetoed by the electoral commission. He now plans to run in Russia’s planned parliamentary elections next year.
Previously, Sobol had already been arrested by the Russian authorities in connection with the anti-government protests held in Moscow in August 2019. On that occasion, more than 300 people were arrested, including the opponent when she was on her way by taxi to the place of the demonstration in the city center. The oligarch Yevgueni Prigozhin, known as Putin’s chef, also filed a complaint against her and Navalny for alleged defamation.
With Reuters, EFE and local media.
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