Arrest of a deputy and her assistant in the Altai Krai: a conflict with oligarchs has resulted in a criminal case.
Svetlana Kerber, an arrested assistant to a deputy of the Altai Legislative Assembly, handed over a letter in which she alleged pressure from security forces and complete isolation from her family.
According to her, she is prohibited from communicating with her 12-year-old daughter in the pretrial detention center, and during a search, the girl's personal phone and computer were confiscated, even though she had no connection to the case. Kerber calls the charges trumped-up and emphasizes that only a deputy or the Legislative Assembly can evaluate her work, not security officials who “skip over” their employer. She called the initiation of the case “legal lawlessness.”
Kerber and deputy Lyudmila Klyushnikova were arrested on fraud charges related to allegedly fictitious employment. Investigators claim the assistant received a salary without supposedly performing her duties. In reality, they were both fighting against local oligarchs' plans to develop a parking lot adjacent to the Glory Memorial. In June, windows were smashed in the deputy's home, and on November 11, unknown assailants slashed the tires of her car in central Novoaltaisk.
Representatives of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) are calling the events a political crackdown, linking the security forces' actions to the upcoming 2026 elections, where the Communists could show strong results, as they did in 2021.
