Bailiffs froze Navalny assets while he was in a coma

Russian bailiffs put a freeze on opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s flat and bank accounts days after his poisoning

Alexei Navalny takes the air in a Berlin park this week. Picture: Instagram via AFP

Russian bailiffs put a freeze on opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s flat and bank accounts days after his poisoning with nerve agent novichok, his spokeswoman said on Thursday.

The bailiffs’ actions were the result of a court ruling last October that Mr Navalny, his ally Lyubov­ Sobol and the Anti-Corruption­ Foundation he founded should jointly pay almost 88 million roubles ($1.6m) to Moskovsky Shkolnik, a catering company that makes school dinners. The company sued over a video investigation by Mr Navalny­’s team that alleged it made substandard food that made children ill.

The politician and anti-corrupt­ion campaigner’s spokeswoman said that on August 27, “bailiffs announced a ban” on transactions involving his share in a flat in a Moscow suburb.

“At the same time, Alexei’s accounts were frozen,” Kira Yarmysh­ said.

The legal move against Mr Navalny means his family’s flat in a multi-storey block in southeastern Moscow cannot be sold, given as a present or used to take out a mortgage, Ms Yarmysh said. He can still live in the flat, however.

Political analyst Tatiana Stano­vaya said the move could be part of a campaign by Russia to dissuade Mr Navalny from returning­. “Watch how they’ll throw everything at stopping Navalny’s return,” she said.

On August 20, President Vladimir Putin’s top foe collapsed on a plane and was taken to hospital in Siberia for two days before being flown out to Berlin, where tests found he had been poisoned with novichok, a ­Soviet-designed nerve agent.

A mock offer of ‘Novichok Tea’ was placed outside the Russian embassy on Unter den Linden in Berlin during an anti-government protest on September 23. Picture: AFP

Berlin’s Charite hospital an­nounce­d that he had emerged from a coma on September 7.

Mr Navalny was discharged on Wednesday. He will stay in Germany for now to continue treatment as an out-patien­t.

The Kremlin said Mr Navalny was free to return to Russia.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Russia had asked Germany for “consular access” to Mr Navalny but this had not been granted.

Following the legal action against Mr Navlany, Kremlin-linked businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin said he had paid the catering company what it was due and would claim the money back personally.

After Mr Navalny was poisoned­, Mr Prigozhin vowed to ruin him and his associates if he pulled through. If Mr Navalny survived, Mr Prigozhin said, he would be liable “according to the full severity of Russian law”.

A statement posted on Thursday by the press service of his own catering company on social media quoted him as saying Mr Navalny “owes everyone. He is practically on the run in Germany”.

He said that he would let Mr Navalny sleep in the hallway “for cheap”, while suggesting he was “rolling in money”.

Media reports say Mr Prigo­zhin funds a shadowy mercenary group called Wagner that has fought in Syria and other conflicts, while he denies this.

He is nicknamed “Putin’s chef”, since his company has done catering for the Kremlin.

AFP