Lawyer Navalny Lyubov Sobol leaves Russia reports News DW

Many media outlets reported on Sunday that opposition leader Lyubov Sombol had left Russia for Turkey on Saturday afternoon, just days before the restrictions took effect.

Pro-government media such as RT and REN TV and the Interfax news agency carried the reports. The editor-in-chief of the pro-opposition Ekho Moskvy also said she had left the country.

Sobol, 33, is one of the most prominent opposition figures linked to jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. He worked as a lawyer for the Anti-Corruption Foundation, which was formally banned in June after being outlawed and described as “extremist” by Russian authorities.

Sombol was sentenced to a year and a half of similar terms for suspension due to his participation in the January 23 opposition rally in Moscow, which authorities say violated COVID-19 restrictions.

She faced the possibility of not leaving her home at night between 10pm and 6am, the inability to change residence without warning, attend mass or other events and travel outside Moscow and the Moscow region without informing the authorities and receiving permission.

The lawyer said the case and the charges against her were politically motivated.

Navalny’s aides under pressure as elections approach

As one of the best known of Navalny’s circle, Sobol was also one of the few allies who had not yet left Russia for fear of persecution.

After receiving a suspended sentence that severely restricted her freedom but had not yet taken effect this month, she told Ekho Moskvy: “Essentially, you can interpret it as the possibility of leaving the country.”

Sobol was unable to comment on Sunday and her friends and allies refused to speak on her behalf.

Russian authorities have launched an ongoing crackdown on opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of the September parliamentary elections.

Navalny is serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence in a penal colony for allegedly violating a conditional embezzlement case that he says has been substantiated.

The violations of his release are due to the accusation that he failed to contact the Russian police after his treatment for poisoning by Novichok in a German hospital.

ar / dj (Reuters, Interfax)