Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh sentenced to restricted freedom in the ‘Sanitary Case’

In its latest “Sanitary Case” verdict, Moscow’s Preobrazhensky District Court handed down a parole-like sentence to Alexey Navalny’s press secretary Kira Yarmysh. On Monday, August 16, the court’s press service told Meduza that Yarmysh was sentenced to one and a half years of “restrictions on freedom.”

The court prohibited her from changing her place of residency without permission, attending mass gatherings, and traveling outside of Moscow and the Moscow region. Yarmysh is also obliged to report to a probation office once a month.

The Preobrazhensky Court has already handed down sentences in the “Sanitary Case” to opposition politician Lyubov Sobol, Navalny staffer Nikolai Lyaskin, and Navalny’s brother Oleg. Sobol was sentenced to one and a half years of restrictions on freedom, Lyaskin was sentenced to one year of restrictions on freedom, and Oleg Navalny received a one year suspended sentence with a one-year probationary period.

The remaining defendants in the case are Navalny staffer Oleg Stepanov, Doctors’ Alliance director Anastasia Vasilieva, Pussy Riot activist Maria Alyokhina, and municipal deputies Dmitry Baranovsky and Lyusya Shtein (the latter is also a member of Pussy Riot). They have yet to receive their sentences.

State investigators launched the “Sanitary Case” in January 2021, accusing ten of Alexey Navalny’s associates of inciting violations of pandemic restrictions in connection with a pro-Navalny rally that took place in Moscow on January 23. According to the investigation, the defendants in the case called for people to attend rally, thereby provoking violations of sanitary and epidemiological rules.

In June, the Russian Investigative Committee dropped the “Sanitary Case” charges against municipal deputy Konstantin Yankauskas; this came shortly after the politician announced that he wouldn’t be running in the upcoming State Duma elections.