A Communist MP was arrested for a post criticizing Navalny.

Deputy of the Legislative Assembly Leningrad Region Ivan Apostolevsky received seven days of arrest for a post he posted on VKontakte eight years ago. Today, his appeal of the court's verdict was rejected. However, as reported by the press service of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, "the content of the post ridicules Alexey Navalny using Lenin's assessments of liberalism."

The post was illustrated A portrait of Navalny, accompanied by a quote from Lenin: "The prostitutes of bourgeois liberalism are trying to don the toga of revolution." It was the politician's portrait that the police deemed "extremist symbolism," although Navalny was only added to the relevant list in 2022, five years after Apostolevsky's post was published.

"Navalny is on the cover of the Fonar newspaper, that's true. But his photo is part of a larger image, which also includes accompanying text. And what's in that text? An apology for Navalny? No, quite the opposite. Moreover, a photo of a person and an image of symbols are two different things, aren't they?" commented Deputy Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Dmitry Novikov.