The Basmanny District Court in Moscow issued an arrest warrant against Olga Mikhailova, Alexei Navalny’s lawyer, the Russian news agency Interfax reported on February 15, the day before Alexei Navalny’s death. “The court decided to place Mikhailova in pre-trial detention as a restrictive measure for a period of two months from the moment she is detained in Russia or extradited to Russia,” the court declared Thursday, reports Interfax.
The lawyer of the famous opponent of Vladimir Putin, charged in absentia with belonging to an extremist group, was “placed on the international list of wanted people”, indicates the press agency. Having gone abroad, far from Russia, she has no intention of returning there. “I will be more useful free than incarcerated,” Mikhailova declared, according to Interfax.
This same court also ordered the issuance of an arrest warrant against Alexander Fedulov, another lawyer of Alexeï Navalny, “on the same charges”, indicates the Russian press agency .
Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexeï Liptser, three lawyers who also defended Alexeï Navalny, were also the subject of searches, before being arrested and then placed in detention on October 13 for “extremism”. Alexeï Navalny, then imprisoned, considered their arrest “scandalous and illegal”, according to the independent Russian media Mediazona.
Pressure on the lawyers of Russian opponents has increased in recent months. Vadim Prokhorov, lawyer for opponents Boris Nemtsov, Ilia Iachine and Vladimir Kara-Mourza, had indicated that they had fled Russia. “The threats have become too pressing,” he told the newspaper Le Monde in April 2023.
“This transformation of lawyers into decorative objects of the judicial system did not start yesterday, or even a year ago,” lamented Russian lawyer Alexander Pikhovikin in October 2023, in an RFI investigation into the pressure exerted on lawyers penalists of Russian opponents. “Legislation on the legal profession is constantly being amended to establish as many red lines as possible for lawyers,” he lamented.