Earlier this week, police arrested Ivan Zhdanov, the lawyer for Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, and on October 26 a court fined him 250,000 rubles ($3,800) for organizing nationwide political protests on September 9 (many of them unpermitted) against the government’s plans to raise the retirement age. Zhdanov managed this feat despite being outside the country on September 9. Officials say his appearance on a live-streaming YouTube channel qualifies as illegal incitement.
According to Leonid Volkov, Navalny’s chief of staff, Russia’s justice system cannot legally prosecute people for misdemeanors committed abroad, comparing it to arresting someone in Moscow for jaywalking in Rome.