Alexey Navalny: Russian authorities launch new criminal investigation into Russian opposition leader

Alexey Navalny: Russian authorities launch new criminal investigation into Russian opposition leader

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Russia’s main investigating body said on Tuesday it had launched a new criminal case against Navalny on charges of fraud related to its alleged misappropriation of $ 5 million in donations to its Anti-Corruption Foundation and other organizations.

The foundation was the subject of a number of criminal and administrative cases, which Navalny and his allies apparently were politically motivated.

“It was found that for the needs of a number of non-profit organizations, including the Anti-Corruption Foundation … more than 588 million rubles [$7.9 million] the inquiry committee said in a statement that these funds were intended only for the purposes of these foundations. “

The commission of inquiry claims that Navalny, as the head of these organizations, conspired with others and ‘spent more than 356 million rubles’ [$4.8 million] of these funds on personal [expenses], “including purchases of property and” holidays abroad. “

“The money collected from citizens was therefore stolen,” the committee said.

The move comes after Russian criminal authorities threatened the opposition politician with jail for failing to comply with the terms of his suspended sentence in a long-running case if he did not appear in Moscow on Tuesday morning – an unlikely timeline given the 10 o’clock notice.

Navalny, who is currently in Germany after being treated at Berlin’s Charite clinic after his poisoning in August with the nerve agent Novichok he blamed on the Kremlin, mocked the investigation on Tuesday.

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

A recent investigation by CNN in collaboration with investigative journalism website Bellingcat revealed that an FSB poison team of about six to ten agents chased Navalny for more than three years before being poisoned with the deadly nerve agent in August.
Russian authorities threaten to arrest Navalny if he does not show up in Moscow on Tuesday morning
The report was followed by the revelation by a Russian agent who sent Navalny to the tail, that they had planted the nerve agent in his underpants, a detail that came to light when Navalny called the man and pretended to be as a member of the Russian National Security Council, for more information on the operation.

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

“It was not that hard to predict. I said from the beginning … they would try to put me in jail because I did not die in the plane and then track down my assassins. Because I proved “Putin is behind this and he is a thief ready to kill those who refused to remain silent about his theft,” Navalny said in an Instagram post on Tuesday.

‘I did not keep silent until I made an effort to do my life; now even more, so I will not remain silent. ‘

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

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