Russian Court Arrested Navalny’s Ally Leonid Volkov

 A district court in Moscow arrested in absentia opposition figure Alexey Navalny’s ally, Leonid Volkov, after issuing an international arrest warrant over his calls on teenagers to participate in unauthorised rallies, court press secretary told Sputnik on Wednesday.

“The court granted the motion of the prosecutors to arrest Leonid Volkov in absentia,” Irina Sofinskaya said.

Volkov, who is the chief coordinator of Navalny’s regional teams, will be arrested for two months starting after his detention in Russia or extradition.

He may face up to three years in prison, as the Russian Investigative Committee launched a criminal case against him over his calls on minors to participate in the recent unauthorised rallies in support of Navalny.Navalny was given a three-and-a-half-year jail term by a Moscow court for violating the conditions of a suspended sentence.

He has been in detention since returning to Russia last month.

He was treated in Germany for a near-fatal nerve agent attack on him in August.

There have been violent scenes in Moscow – video on social media show police beating and arresting protesters who came out to support Navalny.

Thousands have rallied across Russia.

Navalny’s suspended sentence for embezzlement has been converted into a jail term.

His lawyers say the accusation is absurd as the authorities knew he was recovering in Berlin from the nerve agent attack that nearly killed him in Russia.

He has already served a year under house arrest which will be deducted from the total.

He greeted the news with a resigned shrug, the BBC’s Sarah Rainsford in Moscow reports.

In court, he called President Vladimir Putin a “poisoner”, blaming him for the attack.

Addressing the court before the sentencing, Navalny said the case was being used to frighten the opposition: “This is how it works: they send one to jail to intimidate millions.”

On the Novichok chemical attack, he said: “Using the FSB (Federal Security Service of Russia), Putin attempted to commit murder.

“I’m not the only one – many know this already and many others will. And this is driving the thieving little man in the bunker crazy.

“No matter how much he tries to look like a geopolitician, he took offense at me because he will go down in history as a poisoner.”

Navalny is accusing Putin of running an administration riddled with corruption, and recently released a YouTube video featuring an opulent Black Sea palace which, he alleged, was a Russian billionaires’ gift to the president.

More than 100 million people have watched the video.

On Saturday Arkady Rotenberg, a billionaire businessman close to Putin said he owned the palace and had bought it two years ago.

But on Sunday some protesters brandished gold-coloured toilet brushes, a symbol of their anger about the palace.

His supporters called for an immediate protest, and hundreds gathered in central Moscow and St Petersburg despite a heavy police presence.

More than 850 have been detained in Moscow alone, according to monitors.