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Alexej Navalny (archive picture): The court apparently demands payment of damages to the catering company
Photo: Pavel Golovkin / dpa
After the poison attack on the Russian opposition politician Alexej Navalny, a court in Moscow has apparently frozen his assets.
A corresponding judicial order was issued on August 27, said Nawalny's spokeswoman Kira Jarmysch in a video message.
Navalny can therefore not make transactions through his bank accounts.
At the time of the judgment, he was still in a coma at the Charité in Berlin, poisoned by a nerve agent from the Novichok group.
The measure also means that Navalny's apartment in a block of flats in southeast Moscow cannot be sold, given away or pledged, said Jarmysch according to the "Tagesschau".
His right to live in the apartment is unaffected by the court decision, according to the AFP news agency.
Claim for damages probably because of defamation of the catering company
The background to the measures is reportedly that Navalny's Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK) was sentenced to pay damages of 88 million rubles (about one million euros) to the catering company Moskowskj Shkolnik (Moscow students) for defamation.
The company is associated with billionaire Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Prigozhin was once a cook for Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin and was last targeted by FBK.
Navalny apparently wants to return to Russia
Jarmysch had previously told AFP that Navalny planned to return to his home country after completing his medical treatment in Germany.
The Kremlin announced on Wednesday that Navalny was free to return to Russia.
The well-known Kremlin critic was admitted to the Charité on August 22, after collapsing two days earlier during a flight in Russia.
According to the federal government, Navalny was "undoubtedly" poisoned with a chemical nerve agent from the so-called Novitschok group.
Moscow rejects the suspicion that Russian government agencies may have deliberately poisoned Navalny.
On Wednesday Navalny was released from inpatient treatment at the Charité.
The health of the 44-year-old had "improved so much that the acute medical treatment could be ended" by his discharge on Tuesday, said the university hospital.
The attending physicians believed that a full recovery was possible for Navalny.
The opposition had recently announced that he wanted to regain his strength with the help of specialists.
He will now go to physiotherapy every day and possibly visit a rehabilitation center, wrote Nawalny on Instagram about a picture from a Berlin park.
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fek / AFP / dpa
