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Russia Opens Criminal Probe Into Navalny Lawyer Who Tried to Meet With FSB
Agent

RFE/RL

   Russian law enforcement agencies have opened a criminal case against
   Lyubov Sobol, a lawyer for the outspoken Kremlin critic Aleksei
   Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and took her in for
   questioning, the head of the foundation said on December 25.

   FBK Director Ivan Zhdanov said on Twitter that investigators launched a
   probe into Sobol for trespassing "with the use of violence or a threat
   to use it" after she rang the doorbell of an agent who has implicated
   the Federal Security Service (FSB) in the poisoning of the 44-year-old
   Kremlin critic.

   Sobol's lawyer Vladimir Voronin told the AFP news agency that the
   opposition lawyer was currently a witness in the probe but added that
   he expected Sobol to be charged later on December 25.
   There was no immediate comment from Russian authorities.
   Earlier on December 25, police raided Sobol's apartment and took away
   her computers and phones, Navalny's supporters said.
   "Lyubov Sobol was taken for questioning to the Investigative Committee.
   The apartment is being searched," the foundation said via Twitter on
   December 25.

     ÐÑÐ±Ð¾Ð²Ñ Ð¡Ð¾Ð±Ð¾Ð»Ñ Ñвезли на допÑÐ¾Ñ Ð²
     СледÑÑвеннÑй комиÑеÑ. РкваÑÑиÑе пÑоÑодиÑ
     обÑÑк.
     -- ÐавалÑнÑй LIVE (@navalnylive) [1]December 25, 2020

   Sobol posted a video on Twitter from inside her apartment before going
   incommunicado. In the video, her seven-year-old daughter can be heard
   crying as someone pounds on the front door, demanding it be opened.
   "They knock on the door and say the police are here. Apparently, the
   search will be at my home. I've never had a personal search before.
   Well, everything happens for the first time. Apparently, because I
   recently went to Navalny's poisoner, " Sobol says in the video.

   Separate CCTV image released by Navalny's allies shows masked men in
   black uniforms inside Sobol's Moscow residential building.

   Sobol was among journalists and political activists who tried to meet
   with Konstantin Kudryavtsev late in the evening on December 21, the day
   Navalny published an audio-recording of what appears to be a
   conversation with Kudryavtsev over the FSB's role in the poisoning.
   She was [2]briefly detained at a police station.

   Sobol's lawyer said the probe had been launched following a complaint
   from Kudryavtsev's mother-in-law.

References

   1. https://twitter.com/navalnylive/status/1342351024145780736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
   2. https://www.rferl.org/a/navalny-sobol-moscow-detained-fsb/31013367.html

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