Moscow, (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 4th Apr, 2025) Russia’s FSB security service on Thursday raided the home of the father of Leonid Volkov, a close ally of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, with Volkov calling it “revenge” for his anti-Kremlin campaigning.
Navalny died in a prison in Russia’s Arctic in February 2024, where he was serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges that were widely seen as retribution for his opposition to President Vladimir Putin.
Since his death, Russian authorities have ramped up a campaign against Navalny’s allies and relatives. They have called his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, an extremist and sentenced his lawyers to prison terms and arrested journalists who covered his court hearings.
Volkov is Navalny’s former chief of staff and now lives in exile.
He said on social media that the FSB raided his father’s home in the Urals city of Yekateinburg and took him for an interrogation that lasted “many hours.”
He said a criminal case was launched against his father.
“No matter what is written in the plot of the criminal case, its meaning is clear and consists of putting pressure on me and on revenge in the most vile way possible: through relatives,” Volkov wrote on X.
He earlier reported the raid in a video posted on Telegram.
“FSB officers are conducting investigative activities in connection with alleged donations to the FBK (Anti-Corruption Foundation) by my father,” wrote Volkov, referring to Navalny’s group, which is banned in Russia.
He said the searches were “revenge for the work I have been doing, am doing, and do not intend to stop.”
Russia outlaws any cooperation with groups it has labelled “extremist”, with prison terms among the possible punishments.
Leonid Volkov said his father, Mikhail Volkov, a mathematician, was dismissed as department head at a Yekaterinburg university in February without explanation, after working there for more than 49 years.
Volkov was one of Navalny’s closest aides in the opposition leader’s campaign to oust Putin.
Under heavy pressure in Russia, especially since Moscow launched its offensive on Ukraine, the Russian opposition has struggled to exert influence from abroad, where it has been plagued by scandals and in-fighting.
