Moscow, Russia:

A Moscow court on Friday ordered a journalist who covered the trials of late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to be held in pre-trial detention on “extremism” charges.

Prosecutors say Antonina Kravtsova, a correspondent for the independent SotaVision outlet, participated in an “extremist organisation”, charges which carry up to six years in prison.

The Kremlin outlawed Navalny’s organisations as “extremist” before his death and has carried out a crackdown against his allies who stayed in Russia.

“The Basmanny District Court ordered Antonina Kravtsova to be remanded in custody for a period of two months,” the press service for Moscow courts said in a post on Telegram.

Kravtsova, who also goes by the name Antonina Favorskaya, regularly covered Navalny’s trials. She filmed a court hearing of him a day before he died in an Arctic prison colony last month.

She was arrested upon leaving jail earlier this week, where she had already served a 10-day sentence on charges of disobeying police orders. 

She had originally been detained hours after visiting Navalny’s grave in southern Moscow during the Russian presidential election.

Prosecutors say Kravtsova posted materials on Navalny’s social media platforms that are banned in Russia.

In court on Friday, Kravtsova said the case was retribution for an article she wrote about how Navalny was “tortured” in prison, SotaVision reported.

The article was shared on X by Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, who described it as an “important text”.

Navalny’s team has condemned the case and on Friday said the Russian regime was trying to create a “new wave of fear” among its critics.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A man lays flowers to pay tribute to Alexei Navalny at the monument, a large boulder from the Solovetsky islands, where the first camp of the Gulag political prison system was established, near the historical Federal Security Service (FSB, Soviet KGB successor) building in Moscow, Russia, on February 26, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

The funeral of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died earlier this month in a remote Arctic penal colony, will take place on March 1 in Moscow after several locations declined to host the service, his spokesperson said.

His funeral will be held at a church in Moscow’s southeast Maryino district on March 1 afternoon, Kira Yarmysh said February 27. The burial is to be at a nearby cemetery.

Navalny died in mid-February in one of Russia’s harshest penal facilities. Russian authorities said the cause of his death at age 47 is still unknown, and the results of any investigation are likely to be questioned abroad. Many Western leaders have already said they hold Russian President Vladimir Putin responsible for his death.

Ms. Yarmysh spoke of the difficulties his team encountered in trying to find a site for a “farewell event” for Navalny.

Also Read | Navalny was close to being freed in a prisoner swap, claims ally

Writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, she said most venues said they were fully booked, with some “refusing when we mention the surname ‘Navalny,” and one disclosing that “funeral agencies were forbidden to work with us.”

Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, said the funeral was initially planned for February 29 — the day of Putin’s annual address to Russia’s Federal Assembly — but no venue would agree to hold it then.

“The real reason is clear. The Kremlin understands that nobody will need Putin and his message on the day we say farewell to Alexei,” Mr. Zhdanov wrote on Telegram.

A woman holds candles and a portrait of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died unexpectedly in prison. Reuters
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny was close to being freed in a prisoner swap at the time of his death, Maria Pevchikh, a Navalny ally, said on February 26, repeating her allegation that President Vladimir Putin had him killed.

Speaking on YouTube, Ms. Pevchikh said talks about exchanging Navalny and two unnamed U.S. nationals for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian FSB security service hit man in jail in Germany, were in their final stages at the time of his death.

Navalny (47) died at an Arctic penal colony on February 16. The Kremlin has denied Russia had any involvement in his death. Navalny’s death certificate stated that he died of natural causes, according to his supporters.

Also read | Who are other Russian dissidents besides the late Alexei Navalny?

Ms. Pevchikh did not name the two U.S. nationals in contention to be swapped along with Navalny. But the United States has said it is trying to return Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Paul Whelan, a former U.S. marine.

“Alexei Navalny could be sitting in this seat right now, right today. That’s not a figure of speech, it could and should have happened,” said Ms. Pevchikh.

“Navalny should have been out in the next few days because we got a decision about his exchange. In early February, Putin was offered to exchange the killer, FSB officer Vadim Krasikov, who’s serving time for a murder in Berlin, for two American citizens and Alexei Navalny.”

Ms. Pevchikh said she had confirmation that negotiations for the swap were in their final stages on the evening of Feb. 15.

Navalny, she alleged, had been killed a day later because Mr. Putin could not tolerate the thought of him being free.

Ms. Pevchikh said Navalny’s allies had been working since the start of the Ukraine war on a plan to get him out of Russia as part of a prisoner exchange involving “Russian spies in exchange for political prisoners”.

She said they had made desperate efforts and tried to find intermediaries, even approaching the late Henry Kissinger, but said Western governments had failed to show the necessary political will.

“Officials, American and German, nodded their heads in understanding. They recounted how important it was to help Navalny and political prisoners, they shook hands, made promises and did nothing.”