Alexey Navalny: Russian authorities launch new criminal investigation against the Russian opposition leader

Alexey Navalny: Russian authorities launch new criminal investigation against the Russian opposition leader

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Russia’s top investigative body said on Tuesday it had opened a new criminal case against Navalny on charges of fraud related to the alleged mishandling of $ 5 million in donations to its Anti-Corruption Foundation and other organizations.

The foundation has been the subject of a series of criminal and administrative proceedings, which Navalny and his allies believe are politically motivated.

“It was discovered that for the needs of a number of non-profit organizations, including the Anti-Corruption Foundation … more than 588 million rubles [$7.9 million] were collected from individuals as donations, “said the Investigation Committee in a statement.” These funds were intended exclusively for the purposes of these foundations. “

The Investigative Committee claims that Navalny, as head of these organizations, conspired with others and “spent more than 356 million rubles [$4.8 million] of those funds on staff [expenses], “including property purchases and” holidays abroad. “

“Thus, the funds collected from citizens were stolen,” said the committee.

The move came after Russian criminal authorities threatened to arrest the opposition politician for failing to comply with the terms of his suspended sentence in a year-long case if he did not attend a hearing in Moscow early on Tuesday – a implausible schedule given the advance notice of hours.

Navalny, who is currently in Germany after receiving treatment at Berlin’s Charite clinic after his poisoning in August with nervous agent Novichok that he blamed the Kremlin for, mocked the investigation on Tuesday.

“It looks like Putin is hysterical,” said Navalny of the Russian president on Twitter.

A recent CNN investigation in cooperation with the investigative journalism site Bellingcat revealed that a team of FSB toxins of about six to 10 agents tracked Navalny for more than three years before he was poisoned in August with the lethal nerve agent.
Russian authorities threaten to arrest Navalny if he does not show up in Moscow early Tuesday morning
That report was followed by the revelation of a Russian agent sent to track Navalny that they planted the nervous agent in his underwear, a detail that came up when Navalny called the man and, posing as a member of the Russian National Security Council, pressured it for details of the operation.

Navalny said the Russian authorities’ cases were an attempt to put him behind bars or prevent him from returning to the country.

“It wasn’t that hard to predict. I said from the start … they will try to arrest me because I didn’t die on the plane and then tracked down my killers. Because I proved that Putin is behind this and that he is a thief who is ready to kill those who refused to be silent about his theft, “said Navalny in an Instagram post on Tuesday.

“I was not silent even before an attempt on my life, now even more so as not to be silent.”

Navalny has repeatedly accused Putin of ordering his poisoning. The Kremlin denied the claim.

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