Russia probes Navalny ally for ‘threatening poisoner’

MOSCOW: Russian authorities on Friday launched a criminal probe into an ally of Kremlin foe Alexei Navalny and raided her flat for allegedly threatening a man Navalny said took part in his poisoning.

Investigators accused Lyubov Sobol of trespassing "with the use of violence or a threat to use it" after she rang the doorbell of the alleged agent from Federal Security Service (FSB), the country’s main security agency.

Sobol’s lawyer Vladimir Voronin told AFP that the opposition activist was currently a witness in the probe but added that he expected Sobol to be charged later on Friday. Just after 7:00 am (0400 GMT) on Friday, the 33-year-old opposition activist posted a video on Twitter from inside her apartment before going incommunicado. In the video her seven-year-old daughter can be heard crying as someone pounds on the front door, demanding it be opened.