Moscow’s Lefortovo court has arrested lawyer Ilya Novikov in absentia on charges of high treason. Novikov lives in Ukraine and has Ukrainian citizenship. In Russia, he was sentenced in absentia to 8.5 years in prison for saying that the Russian military was involved in the killing of Ukrainian civilians.
“Hey, come on, you can’t arrest me in absentia! I’m already in prison in absentia,” Novikov commented on the information about the arrest.
In addition to Novikov, the court arrested two other people in absentia, including Igor Volobuev, a former vice president of Gazprombank who left for Ukraine after the full-scale Russian invasion. He is a Russian citizen. Volobuev claimed to be serving in the International Legion of the AFU, which includes the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Russian Freedom Legion, the channel Real Time recalls. The units call themselves associations of volunteers from Russia.
In addition, Aleksandr Dubinin was arrested in absentia. The press service of the Moscow courts described him as a former employee of the Russian military intelligence service. Apparently, this is a Russian who fights in the Russian Volunteer Corps as part of the Ukrainian forces.
According to the Ukrainian website Peacemaker, Dubinin, also known by the call sign Slavyan, was convicted in Ukraine in 2014 for espionage and was on lists for an exchange with Russia.
Earlier, Russian authorities placed lawyer Ilya Novikov on Rosfinmonitoring’s list of “terrorists and extremists.”
Novikov moved from Russia to Kyiv even before the full-scale invasion began. In Russia, he acted, among other things, as a lawyer for Ukrainian citizens who were subjected to political persecution, in particular Oleg Sentsov and Crimean Tatar activists. He continues to practice law in Ukraine.
