Three lawyers who have defended imprisoned Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny have been detained by law enforcement after their houses were searched, according to associates of the Kremlin critic who added that the lawyers are suspected of participating in an extremist community.
Navalny's groups and organization were labeled as extremist and banned in Russia in 2021. The punishment for taking part in an extremist group's activities while using the powers of an official position is up to 12 years in prison.
Navalny associate Ivan Zhdanov, who currently resides abroad, named the three lawyers as Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin, and Aleksei Lipster. Vyacheslav Gimadi, the head of the legal department in Navalny's team, confirmed on X, formerly known as Twitter, the names of the three lawyers.
Navalny's Team group wrote on Telegram that all three lawyers were detained after the searches.
Russian law enforcement has not confirmed the searches.
In August, judges of the Moscow City Court found Navalny guilty of creating an extremist organization and more than doubled his prison term to 19 years, ruling that one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's sharpest critics must be transferred to a harsher "special regime" facility, rather than the maximum-security prison where he currently is held.
Last month, after a court rejected his appeal against the 19-year sentence, Navalny said he had been informed that he will be transferred to the strictest possible prison cell for one year.
It was unclear if the punishment will be carried out in a special regime prison or in the maximum-security IK-6 penal colony 250 kilometers east of Moscow where he is currently held.
Navalny has been in and out of solitary confinement in recent months, and his allies say his health has deteriorated.
The charges against Navalny are widely seen as retribution for his efforts to expose what he describes as the pervasive lawlessness, corruption, and repression by Putin and his political system.
Navalny was Russia's loudest opposition voice and galvanized huge anti-government rallies before he was jailed.
His previous sentence was handed down in 2021 after he arrived in Moscow from Germany, where he had been recovering from a poisoning attack he blamed on the Kremlin.
Before the most recent conviction, he was serving a combined 11 1/2 years for embezzlement and violating the terms of his parole while he was in Germany being treated for the poisoning.