Russian bailiffs froze accounts and part of the apartment of opponent Alexei Navalny when he was in a coma after suspected poisoning at the end of August.

In a video, the spokesperson for the opponent Kira Iarmych indicated that the Russian justice had frozen on August 27 the share held by Alexeï Navalny of his apartment in Moscow.

Therefore this home "can no longer be sold, given or mortgaged".

She added that the opponent's accounts had also been seized.

Contacted by AFP, Kira Iarmych said that the opponent, currently in Germany after being hospitalized in Berlin, could nevertheless "continue to live" in this apartment immediately, if he returned to Russia.

Poisoned

Anti-corruption activist and fierce critic of the Kremlin, Alexeï Navalny fell seriously ill on August 20 on a plane in Siberia.

Three European laboratories have concluded that it was poisoned with a Novichok-type nerve agent, designed for military purposes in Soviet times.

Charges rejected by Moscow.

The opponent was released on Tuesday from the Charité hospital in Berlin where he had been treated for a month.

He will stay in Germany immediately for the rest of his convalescence.

The Kremlin claimed it was "free" to return to Russia.

According to the spokesperson for the opponent, these new court decisions are linked to a dispute between a sulphurous businessman, reputed to be close to the Kremlin, Evgueni Prigojine, to Alexeï Navalny and one of his allies, Lioubov Sobol.

"Sleep inexpensively outside my door"

In October, the two activists and their anti-corruption organization were ordered to pay nearly 88 million rubles (978,000 euros at the current rate) to a school catering company, Moskovski Chkolnik.

The company sued the opponent and his organization for libel for the publication of an investigation claiming that this company had served food dangerous to the health of schoolchildren.

Alexeï Navalny and his team target the corruption of Russian elites in their investigations, garnering millions of views on social networks.

Reacting to the freezes of Mr. Navalny's property, Evgueni Prigojine, nicknamed "Putin's cook", argued Thursday that the opponent owed "everyone money" and that he was "on the run in Germany. "

"I can offer him to sleep inexpensively outside my door," added the businessman, quoted in a message from his company, Concord, published on the Russian social network VKontakte.

On August 26, Evgueni Prigojine had already indicated in a press release that he was going to "ruin" Alexeï Navalny, if he survived, and his supporters whom he had qualified as "unscrupulous people".

At the end of August, the opponent Lioubov Sobol had announced that he had been suddenly debited by 34 million rubles (377,000 euros at the current rate) in connection with this dispute.

In March, Yevgeny Prigojine had already demanded $ 50 billion in compensation from the United States after being sanctioned by Washington for his role in Moscow's interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

He is also accused - which he denies - of being linked to the Wagner group, whose men are said to serve in Syria, Libya and several African countries.

With AFP

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