President Putin goes after Alexei Navalny’s family as arrest warrant is put out for the late opposition leader’s brother who has fled Russia

The brother of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is allegedly facing unspecified new criminal charges.

Oleg Navalny, currently in self-exile, has been added to Russia’s ‘wanted list’ by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, according to Russian state-controlled media outlet TASS.

 TASS announced the charges ‘without giving any details’.

Oleg was already on the Ministry’s wanted list in connection with another case, alleged to have violated Russia’s Covid-19 lockdown restrictions by encouraging people to join his brother’s antigovernmental protests. 

But the move to arrest him now comes at a sensitive time following protests over the sudden death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a brutal Arctic penal colony on February 16.

Alexei Navalny’s sudden death in the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp last week has left many questions unanswered, sparking protests across Europe. 

Navalny was reported to have died on Friday after collapsing suddenly following a walk. On Saturday, his mother and team traveled to the camp, where they were told investigators were still trying to determine the cause of death.

Lyudmila Navalnaya asked to see her son’s body but was told it was in the nearby Salekhard morgue. They were later informed it had been moved, leading to suspicions Russia had hidden Navalny’s body to wait for traces of a nerve agent to disappear.

Russian investigators claimed on Saturday Navalny had died from sudden adult death syndrome, but later said they would not hand over Navalny’s body for 14 days while a ‘chemical examination’ takes place.

Navalny was previously suspected of having been poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent in 2020 after falling suddenly ill when returning from investigating corruption in Siberia.