Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of imprisoned opposition politician Alexey Navalny, has left Russia, Interfax reported on Wednesday, February 10, citing an informed source.
Update. According to the German news website Der Spiegel, Yulia Navalnaya arrived in Frankfurt on Wednesday evening. Apparently, she’s in Germany on a “private visit.”
Navalnaya reportedly left Moscow on a flight to Frankfurt am Main that departed from Domodedovo Airport.
The reason for Navalnaya’s alleged departure remains unknown. Navalnaya herself has yet to comment on these reports. Her lawyer, Svetlana Davydova, and her husband’s lawyer, Vadim Kobzev, told the state news agency TASS that they were unaware that Navalnaya had left the country. Another lawyer representing Navalnaya, Veronika Polyakova, told RIA Novosti the same thing.
Mediazona reported that according to the online service SkyScanner there was only one flight travelling directly from Moscow to Frankfurt am Main on February 10 — a Lufthansa flight that left Moscow at 4:15 p.m., local time. Interfax reported Navalnaya’s departure on its closed feed at 4:22 p.m., Moscow time.
Lufthansa declined to comment, citing the confidentiality of passenger information.
Alexey Navalny was arrested on January 17, immediately upon returning to Moscow from Berlin, where he spent nearly five months recovering from a chemical nerve agent attack. The next day, a Russian court remanded him in custody for 30 days, pending trial for allegedly violating his parole in the Yves Rocher case. On February 2, a Moscow court revoked Navalny’s probation and sentenced him to two years and eight months in prison.
