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Oleg Navalny
Photo: Evgeniy Sofiychuk / dpa
Russia has issued an arrest warrant for the brother of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
The Interior Ministry in Moscow said the 38-year-old Oleg Navalny was wanted on criminal charges.
On Tuesday, the Russian prison authority asked the courts to convert a suspended sentence for Oleg Navalny for corona violations into a prison sentence.
The arrest warrant was issued when the police were unable to locate Oleg Navalny at his residence, his lawyer Nikos Paraskevov told the Interfax news agency.
It is not clear whether the 38-year-old has left the country, Paraskewow added.
Almost all of Alexei Navalny's key allies have fled into exile in Russia since his imprisonment.
Ekho Moskvy radio station previously reported that a hearing in a Moscow court was scheduled for February 18.
Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny and some of his comrades-in-arms were put on a controversial list of "terrorists and extremists" in Russia on Tuesday.
Last August, Oleg Navalny was given a one-year suspended sentence for allegedly violating Russia's pandemic regulations during protests for his brother's release.
He was also accused of calling on his compatriots to take part in an unauthorized rally in January 2021 in support of his brother.
Brothers already convicted in 2014
Alexei and Oleg Navalny were convicted in a 2014 fraud trial that critics of the Kremlin say was politically motivated.
Oleg served a three and a half year sentence and was released in 2018, while Alexei received a three and a half year suspended sentence.
Alexei Navalny is the best-known critic and opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In August 2020, he was attacked in Russia using a Russian-made nerve agent, which he barely survived.
After several months of medical treatment in Germany, Navalny returned to Russia in January last year, where he was immediately arrested.
He is being held in a penal colony a hundred kilometers east of Moscow.
til/AFP/dpa