Moscow prosecutors wanted to seize opposition leader Alexey Navalny's home

The Moscow District Attorney’s Office asked the city’s courts to seize the apartment owned by Alexey Navalny as an injunctive measure in a lawsuit against the anti-corruption activist. In a post on Instagram, Navalny said the 78.5-square-meter (845-square-foot) apartment is his “only major asset.” 

In early September, the Moscow District Attorney’s Office filed a lawsuit against Navalny and seven other opposition leaders for organizing unpermitted protests on July 27 and August 3. According to the newspaper Kommersant, the state is seeking to recover 5 million rubles ($78,000) in spending on “additional forces” and extra fuel and equipment called up by the National Guard to police the demonstrations.

Attorney Sergey Badamshin revealed in a Telegram post that Moscow prosecutors asked the city’s courts back on September 9 to seize the property of all defendants named in the lawsuit, but the Cheryomushkinsky District Court refused. Case records indicate that the court put the request on hold on September 9, and then agreed to hear the request on September 23.

Update: The news agency Interfax reports that Moscow's Cheryomushkinsky District Court has refused to impose prosecutors' requested injunctive measures, declining to confiscate oppositionists' property, including Alexey Navalny's apartment.

Following unpermitted mass protests in Moscow this summer, several companies and state agencies filed a series of lawsuits against the leaders of the anti-Kremlin opposition. So far, Moscow courts have awarded more than 4.9 million rubles ($76,500) to plaintiffs in different cases.