Navalny ally’s retired father arrested
AN ally of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny accused authorities yesterday of detaining his father in an attempt to pressure him over his opposition activities which include organising a new anti-government protest.
Ivan Zhdanov, head of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, said police had detained his retired father in the city of Rostov-on-Don for alleged abuse of office.
“I have no doubts that this criminal case is linked to me and to what I do,” said Zhdanov, who is outside Russia and part of a team of anti-Kremlin activists trying to mobilise support for a new protest this northern spring which the authorities oppose.
Authorities have cracked down on allies of Navalny, 44, President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic, whose jailing on what he said were trumped up parole violation charges sparked protests earlier this year.
The authorities have cast Navalny as a Western-backed puppet on a mission to destabilise Russia ahead of a parliamentary election due in September, a charge he denies. Many of Navalny’s closest allies, including his spokesperson and brother, are under house arrest and facing charges.
Zhdanov’s 66-year-old father used to work as an official in a village but had been retired since last northern summer, Zhdanov said on Facebook.
The case against him related to him recommending social housing be allocated to a woman whose family had already received a housing subsidy, Zhdanov said. The housing allocation was later cancelled because of the earlier subsidy, he said.
Yesterday, Navalny said he could be locked up in solitary confinement after being accused of numerous minor infractions, and posted the first picture of himself from prison, a grainy image showing his head had been shaven.
The fate of Navalny is in focus after he said on Thursday that being woken up by a guard every hour during the night amounted to torture and that his appeal for treatment for acute back and leg pain had been ignored.
More than 20 medical professionals on Sunday published an open letter demanding the opposition politician get proper care.