Lawyer Lyubov Sobol refuses to pledge not to leave Moscow following criminal charges
Lawyer Lyubov Sobol, who works for Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, has been released on her own recognizance after being charged with criminally infringing on the inviolability of the home of Konstantin Kudryavtsev — one of the FSB operatives implicated in Navalny’s poisoning.
In conversation with the independent television network Dozhd on Monday, December 28, Sobol’s lawyer Vladimir Voronin confirmed that preventive measures were taken against her, but declined to specify the details.
Yes, a measure was chosen. But unfortunately I can’t say which one. Because I signed a non-disclosure agreement on the information from the preliminary investigation.
Sobol herself told Mediazona that state investigators tried to get her to sign a pledge not to leave Moscow, but she refused.
Criminal charges were brought against Lyubov Sobol after she went to Konstantin Kudryavtsev’s home on the outskirts of Moscow and tried to talk to him on December 21 — the same day Alexey Navalny released a video of an alleged conversation with the FSB operative.
According to state investigators, Sobol got into the apartment building by tricking a delivery man into thinking that she was an “abandoned wife with a small child” and then proceeded to illegally enter the apartment of “an elderly woman.”
According to Alexey Navalny, the woman investigators are referring to is Kudryavtsev’s mother-in-law and neighbor, Galina Subbotina. Apparently, after Kudryavtsev refused to open the door for Sobol, she managed to get into the apartment building along with a pizza delivery man. Navalny said that Subbotina herself came out of her apartment to speak to Sobol.
In a broadcast on the YouTube channel Navalny Live on December 28, Sobol said that during a cross-examination, the delivery man, who had previously testified against her, confirmed that she didn’t enter Galina Subbotina’s apartment and didn’t threaten her with violence.
On December 25, law enforcement officers searched Sobol’s apartment. Afterwards, she was taken to the Investigative Committee for questioning and placed under arrest for 48 hours. Sobol was released on the evening of December 27.
Read more about Sobol’s case
- Lawyer Lyubov Sobol arrested near home of FSB operative implicated in poisoning Navalny
- Lawyer Lyubov Sobol handed petty fine following arrest outside FSB operative’s home
- ‘I called my killer and he confessed’ Alexey Navalny says he fooled one of his FSB assassins into detailing the Kremlin’s poisoning operation
Who?
On December 14, Bellingcat, The Insider, CNN, and Der Spiegel published an investigation implicating a special FSB sub-unit in poisoning Alexey Navalny with a Novichok-type nerve agent. Konstantin Kudryavtsev was among the operatives identified in the investigation. On December 21, Alexey Navalny shared a video revealing that he had managed to fool Kudryavtsev into detailing the Kremlin’s poisoning operation.