Russia Says Navalny Violated Conditions Of House Arrest

Russian officials say outspoken Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny has broken the conditions of his pretrial house arrest by using the Internet.

A spokeswoman for Russia's Federal Service for Convictions' Implementation (FSIN), Yelena Zarembinskaya, told reporters in Moscow on May 27 that it is now up to the Prosecutor-General's Office, investigators, and the court to decide if Navalny should be transferred to a pretrial detention center.

Navalny is currently under house arrest as he and his brother are being investigated for allegedly stealing and laundering $756,500 from the French cosmetics company Yves Rocher.

Navalny denies any wrongdoing, saying the case against him and his brother is politically motivated.

Navalny, an anticorruption blogger, is already serving a five-year suspended sentence on a $500,000 theft conviction he also says was a Kremlin reprisal.


Based on reporting by Interfax and ITAR-TASS