Russian police issue APB for former director of Alexey Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation

Russian police have issued an all-points bulletin naming Roman Rubanov, the former director of Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK). Records available in the Interior Ministry’s database do not indicate the charges against Rubanov, whose phone was turned off on Tuesday. FBK director Ivan Zhdanov did not respond immediately to Meduza’s request for more information about Rubanov’s case.

Russian Civic Chamber member and notorious Navalny critic Ilya Remeslo told the website Rupostersthat he believes Rubanov is wanted in connection with his alleged felony refusal to abide by a ruling in a defamation lawsuit against FBK. Since October 2018, Russian Criminal Code Article 315 (“non-execution of a court’s judgement”) has applied not only to state officials but also ordinary citizens who have committed the same misdemeanor offense within the past 12 months.

Remeslo says the case against Rubanov likely relates to FBK’s refusal to redact its bombshell March 2017 investigative report, which accuses Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of various corruption schemes. Billionaire Alisher Usmanov won a lawsuit against the Anti-Corruption Foundation, and a judge ordered the organization to delete the sections of its report that named Usmanov. Rubanov was later fined for refusing to abide by the ruling.