MOSCOW, July 26 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court on Monday upheld arrest in absentia of Ivan Zhdanov, a former director of the foundation established by Alexey Navalny, which had been declared extremist by court, as part of a case over deliberate non-compliance with court decisions, the court’s press service told RAPSI.

Zhdanov is to be placed in detention for one month after his arrest.

In June, he was put on the international wanted list. He could face up to two years in jail if convicted.

Last November, Moscow’s Simonovsky District Court upheld a 100,000-ruble fine ($1,400) imposed on Zhdanov for refusal to delete a video record released by Navalny’s foundation defaming businessman Alisher Usmanov. 

In July 2020, Zhdanov was fined for publishing posts on the Instagram account of  Navalny’s foundation without noting that the materials had been distributed by a foreign agent. He was found guilty of breaching the order of the operation of an NGO operating under the label of a foreign agent. Earlier, the court also fined Navalny’s associate 100,000 rubles for a similar violation.