The coordinator of Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny’s election staff in the city of Volgograd has been charged with desecrating Russian military symbols.
The Russian Investigative Committee said on July 26 that Aleksei Volkov was ordered not leave the city before his trial. A date for the trial has not been determined.
The probe was launched after Navalny's supporters in March distributed posters of Russia's Soviet-era "Motherland Calls" monument with the face of the memorial's major figure -- a woman symbolizing Russia, painted in green.
The activists said their idea was to urge officials to investigate attacks against Navalny, whose face was splashed several times in recent months with a green antiseptic known as “zelyonka.”
Volkov refused to answer investigators' questions.
Dozens of Navalny’s campaign workers have been detained or questioned in Moscow and other cities in recent weeks.
Anticorruption blogger Navalny is actively campaigning for the March 2018 presidential election, in which President Vladimir Putin is widely expected to seek and win a fourth term.
