A court in Moscow has suggested that the brother of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny may have left the country for Cyprus.
Russia added Oleg Navalny to the country’s wanted list last month. On February 18, the Lyublino district court suggested during a hearing on possibly converting his suspended one-year prison term to a real prison term that the 38-year-old may have departed the country several months ago.
“Navalny obtained a ticket for a Moscow-Cyprus flight for September 4, 2021, and there is no information on his return to the country,” a judge said at the hearing for Navalny, which was held in absentia.
Navalny’s current whereabouts are unknown.
Oleg Navalny was given a one-year suspended prison sentence after a court in Moscow in August found him guilty of publicly calling for the violation of coronavirus pandemic restrictions.
He and his supporters have called the sentence politically motivated.
The outspoken Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny has been in prison since February 2021 after being speedily tried and handed a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for violating the terms of an earlier parole. His conviction is widely regarded as a trumped-up, politically motivated case.
Navalny has blamed President Vladimir Putin for his poisoning with a Novichok-style chemical substance. The Kremlin has denied any role in the attack.
