Update: Alexey Navalny’s lawyers Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin, and Alexey Liptser have been arrested, according to Navalny’s press secretary, Kira Yarmysh.
Russian law enforcement officers have searched the homes of three lawyers who previously defended jailed opposition politician Alexey Navalny, Radio Svoboda reported on Friday, citing the head of Navalny’s legal team, Vyacheslav Gimadi.
Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, wrote on X that authorities searched the homes of lawyers Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin, and Alexey Liptser as part of an investigation into their suspected involvement in an “extremist” organization. Shortly after, he reported that Sergunin had been arrested.
According to Navalny associate Leonid Volkov, all of the lawyers could face up to six years in prison if convicted.
“This is, without a doubt, part of an effort to completely isolate Navalny,” Zhdanov said. Volkov noted that Navalny is slated to be sent to a “special regime” prison colony in the near future, and that if his lawyers are in prison themselves, they “will not be able to visit him there or even to find out his whereabouts.”
