Russian bailiffs put a freeze on opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s apartment and bank accounts days after his poisoning with a Novichok nerve agent, his spokeswoman said on Thursday.
The bailiffs’ actions were the result of a court ruling in October last year that Navalny, his ally Lyubov Sobol and the Anti-Corruption Foundation he founded should jointly pay almost 88 million rubles (US$1.14 million) to Moskovsky Shkolnik, a catering company that makes school dinners.
The company sued over a video investigation by Navalny’s team that alleged it made substandard food that made children ill.
Photo: EPA-EFE / ALEXEI NAVALNY HANDOUT
The politician and anti-corruption campaigner’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said in a video statement that on Aug. 27, “bailiffs announced a ban” on transactions involving his share in an apartment in a Moscow suburb.
“At the same time, Alexei’s accounts were frozen,” Yarmysh said.
The legal move against Navalny means his family’s apartment in a multistory block in southeastern Moscow cannot be sold, given as a present or used to take out a mortgage, she said, adding that he can still live there.
The move could be part of a campaign by Russia to dissuade Navalny from returning, political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya said.
“Watch how they’ll throw everything at stopping Navalny’s return,” she said on social media.
On Aug. 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top foe collapsed on a plane and was taken to hospital in Siberia for two days before being flown out to Berlin, where tests found he had been poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-designed nerve agent.
The German hospital announced that he had emerged from a coma on Sept. 7.
His allies and top international officials have said that the onus is on Russia to prove that the poisoning was not state ordered and hold a proper investigation, while Russia argues it needs evidence from tests in Germany and other countries to do so.
Doctors at Berlin’s Charite hospital on Wednesday said that Navalny had been discharged.
He is to stay in Germany to continue treatment as an outpatient.
The Kremlin said that Navalny was free to return to Russia.
Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov on Thursday said that Russia had asked Germany for “consular access” to Navalny, but this had not been granted.
He condemned “high-handed” international demands for “some kind of repentance” from Russia over the case.
Navalny intends to return to Russia, where he and his allies have been targeted with court cases and search warrants and have served brief terms behind bars, Yarmysh said.
Following the legal action against Navlany, Kremlin-linked businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin said that he had paid the catering company what it was due and would claim the money back personally.
After Navalny was poisoned, he vowed to ruin him and his associates if he pulled through.
If Navalny survived, he would be liable “according to the full severity of Russian law,” Prigozhin said.
A statement posted on Thursday by the press service of his own catering company on social media quoted him as saying: Navalny “owes everyone. He is practically on the run in Germany.”
Prigozhin said that he would let Navalny sleep in the hallway “for cheap,” while suggesting that he is “rolling in money.”
Media reports have said that Prigozhin funds a shadowy mercenary group called Wagner that has fought in Syria and other conflicts, which he denies.
He is nicknamed “Putin’s chef” since his company has done catering for the Kremlin.
Sobol in late August said that bailiffs debited all her bank accounts for her share of the sum, leaving her deep in the red.
To try and avoid paying the fine, the Anti-Corruption Foundation changed its legal status.
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