Spouses from Krasnodar accused of extremism for leaflets with Alexei Navalny*

In Krasnodar, law enforcers accused spouses Sergey Albov and Alina Albova of extremism after they had posted leaflets with the image of Alexei Navalny*. The court sentenced Sergey Albov to two days of arrest and dismissed the case against his wife.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that residents of Russian cities, including in the south of the country, have been persecuted for their attempts to lay flowers in memory of Alexei Navalny* at memorials to the victims of political repression.

According to Sergey Albov’s story, on February 21, he and his wife went out to a store and were stopped by a man who introduced himself as a criminal investigation officer, the “SOTAvision” Telegram channel reports. At the police department, the spouses from Krasnodar were shown photos and videos, in which Sergey Albov was putting up a leaflet with a portrait and surname of Alexei Navalny* and his wife was standing nearby.

Sergey Albov said that the law enforcers were interrogating him until the morning and asking how much he was paid for posting the leaflets, to which he replied that no one paid him any money for that. The residents of Krasnodar refused to answer questions without an advocate. Defender Alexei Avanesyan was not allowed into the police department. He claimed that the law enforcers pulled the wool over his eyes, saying that the Sergey Albov had allegedly refused his help.

Sergey Albov partially admitted his guilt: he said that he posted the leaflets, but did not distribute any extremist materials.

The “Caucasian Knot” has also reported that on February 26, activists reported that Nikolai Zimiryov, a resident of Sochi, who attracted the law enforcers’ attention with his action in memory of Alexei Navalny*, had not been in touch for five days after his detention.

*On January 25, 2022, the “Rosfinmonitoring” (the Russian Federal Service for Financial Monitoring) included Alexei Navalny into the register of extremists and terrorists. He was a founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (known as FBK), an NCO that is included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in the register of NCOs performing functions of a foreign agent, recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation. Convicted on probation in a case on fraud. In February 2021, the term was replaced with imprisonment. In a penal colony, Alexei Navalny was charged with fraud and contempt of court and sentenced to 9 years of imprisonment. Furthermore, Alexei Navalny was also sentenced to 19 years of imprisonment in a case on disorganizing the penal colony, extremism, and rehabilitation of Nazism. In April 2023, Alexei Navalny announced that he faced life imprisonment in the case on terrorism. Recognized as a “prisoner of conscience.” The Alexei Navalny’s offices, which previously operated in the Russian regions, are recognized in Russia as extremist organizations and included in the list of prohibited organizations.