The Yves Rocher company, involved in the criminal case against Navalny, was “stunned to learn” about his murder

Representatives of the French perfume chain Yves Rocher reported that they were “stunned” to learn about the murder of Alexei Navalny and regretted the death of the politician. Novaya Gazeta reported this with reference to a letter from the company.

After the news about the murder of the oppositionist appeared, the publication sent Yves Rocher an appeal asking whether the company regrets its involvement in the persecution of the opposition politician. Previously, it was thanks to the statement of one of the employees of the French perfume chain in Russia that a criminal case was opened against Navalny.

The response was received by Novaya Gazeta on February 24. In it, among other things, Yves Rocher said that they were committed to “the idea of ​​respect for personal freedoms and human rights throughout the world - a battle that Mr. Navalny has waged for many years.” Company representatives also expressed condolences to the relatives of the deceased politician.

In December 2012, the head of the Russian branch of the company (Yves Rocher Vostok), Bruno Leproux, wrote a “crime statement” to the Investigative Committee, in which he accused the Glavpodpiska company, created by Alexei Navalny and his brother Oleg, of fraud. However, Yves Rocher Vostok later reported that no damage was caused as a result of cooperation with the Navalny brothers’ company.

Despite this, in 2014, the court in this case sentenced Oleg Navalny to three and a half years in prison, and Alexei Navalny to three and a half years suspended sentence with a probationary period. Later, the probationary period of the policy was extended , and in 2021, when Navalny returned to Russia, the court replaced the suspended sentence with a real one.

In its request, Novaya Gazeta tried to find out whether the statement of a representative of the perfume chain was submitted under pressure. “The procedure linking Yves Rocher with Alexei Navalny is more than 10 years old. We are talking about a dispute of an exclusively commercial nature, which was closed in Russia for several years and has already been considered in the first instance and twice on appeal in France - in favor of Yves Rocher. There is no connection between this drama and this procedure,” the company responded.

“The Yves Rocher Vostok company never wrote a statement against the Navalny brothers and never formulated any request for justice in relation to them at any time. In addition, our branch spontaneously presented a document in favor of those accused in the Russian procedure against the Navalny brothers,” Novaya Gazeta quotes the perfume chain’s response.

In January 2022, on the anniversary of the imprisonment of politician Alexei Navalny, Novaya Gazeta also turned to Yves Rocher for clarification in connection with the persecution of the politician. At the time, the company responded that it did not want it “to be used for political purposes or to participate in current political debates in Russia” because it was not consistent with its values.

The death of Alexei Navalny in IK-3 in Kharp became known on February 16. The medical report, which was shown to the mother of the oppositionist Lyudmila Navalnaya, indicated “natural causes” of death. The body of the deceased politician was handed over to his mother only on February 24. Before this, investigators demanded that Lyudmila Navalnaya hold a secret funeral. Later, ally of the oppositionist Maria Pevchikh reported that Navalny’s team was negotiating an exchange of the politician for FSB officer Vadim Krasikov.