Russian authorities seized Alexei Navalny's Moscow apartment while the opposition leader was still in a coma, said Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh on Thursday, blaming a powerful and wealthy figure in Russia linked to the Kremlin.
Navalny was released from hospital in Berlin yesterday, and continues to recover there before a planned return to Russia.
Navalny's representative Yarmysh says the home seizure has to do with a court ruling in favor of a school catering company reportedly linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a tycoon with ties to Vladimir Putin.
Prigozhin is also known by the nickname "Putin's chef."
From the Associated Press :
Prigozhin was among a dozen Russians indicted in 2018 by a U.S. grand jury in the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, alleging he funded internet trolls involved in interfering with the U.S. presidential election in 2016.
Last year, a Moscow court ordered Navalny and his associates to pay 88 million rubles ($1.1 million) in damages to a company reportedly linked to Prigozhin after they accused the company — and him — of allegedly supplying contaminated food to Moscow kindergartens and sparking an outbreak of dysentery among dozens of children.
Prigozhin's spokespeople denied he had anything to do with the company. Days after Navalny fell into a coma, Prigozhin announced he had bought the debt from the company, promising to "ruin" the politician if he survived.
