NEW YORK (Jan. 17, 2026) — The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) submitted the case of lawyers Vadim Kobzev and Alexei Liptser to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) today, on the first anniversary of their sentencing.
Kobzev and Liptser were members of Alexei Navalny’s legal team, most recently representing him after his 2021 arrest at Moscow’s airport and advocating for his humane treatment in prison. Their imprisonment represents the worsening crackdown on political opposition in Russia and a disturbing trend toward targeting lawyers merely for performing their professional duties.
Yulia Navalnaya, Russian opposition leader, HRF Chair, and the widow of Alexei Navalny, published an op-ed in The Washington Post detailing their case and the ongoing attack against the rule of law in Russia.
The men were arrested and had their homes and offices searched in October 2023, just four months before Navalny died of poisoning in a remote Russian penal colony. Kobzev and Liptser were convicted and sentenced on Jan. 17, 2025, after more than a year in pretrial detention on fabricated charges of “participation in an extremist community” under Article 282.1(2) of Russia’s Criminal Code.
Prosecutors claimed the men had relayed information between Navalny and the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), which the regime labeled an “extremist” organization.
“Mr. Kobzev and Mr. Liptser are currently in prison for nothing more than representing a political opposition leader who threatened Putin’s power,” members of HRF’s legal team, Kaitie Holland and Hannah Van Dijcke, explained. “It is not illegal to do your job as a lawyer.”
“Russia’s vague anti-terrorism laws are being used against independent lawyers like Kobzev and Liptser,” said HRF’s Legal Fellow Sergei Korotkov. “Prosecutors even relied on secretly recorded lawyer-client meetings, a clear violation of attorney-client privilege.”
HRF considers the targeting of lawyers for their professional work to be an attack on the rule of law itself. The continued imprisonment of Kobzev and Liptser undermines the very principles they were defending.
Kobzev and Liptser were placed in Russia’s prison transfer system in December 2025. Liptser’s health has seriously deteriorated; he is being held at a detention transit center in Krasnoyarsk, but his final destination is unknown. Kobzev has been transferred to penal colony No. 5 in Kirovo-Chepetsk, Kirov Oblast, where he is serving his sentence. HRF urgently calls on the WGAD to investigate their case and determine that their detention is arbitrary and violates international law. HRF requests that the WGAD call for the Russian Federation to release the lawyers immediately and to ensure they are not subjected to further harassment.
A video statement by Yulia further details the case and situates the imprisonment of Kobzev and Liptser within the Kremlin’s broader assault on the rule of law in Russia.
