NEW YORK (Nov. 10, 2026) –– The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) welcomes the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) opinion that the detention of Russian lawyers Vadim Kobzev and Alexei Liptser is arbitrary and violates international law. HRF submitted a petition on their behalf in January 2026, on the first anniversary of their sentencing. In its opinion, the WGAD calls on the Russian regime, classified by HRF’s Tyranny Tracker as fully authoritarian, to release Kobzev and Liptser immediately and provide them with compensation and other reparations in accordance with international law.
Kobzev and Liptser represented Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was murdered by poisoning in a remote Arctic penal colony in February 2024. The lawyers were arrested and their homes and offices were searched in October 2023, just four months before Navalny was killed. Their imprisonment was widely seen as an effort to further isolate him; the men had advocated for better conditions for Navalny in prison and challenged arbitrary measures imposed on him in court.
On Jan. 17, 2025, after more than a year in pretrial detention, Kobzev and Liptser were convicted and sentenced to more than five years in prison on trumped-up charges of “participation in an extremist community” under Article 282.1(2) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The Kremlin’s prosecutors claimed that the lawyers had transferred information between Navalny and the Anti-Corruption Foundation, which the regime has labeled an “extremist” organization. The European Court of Human Rights later found that this “extremist” designation violates international law and enables persecution against peaceful political activity.“
Vladimir Putin was so afraid of one prisoner’s voice, my husband’s voice, that he had to silence his lawyers, too. Vadim Kobzev and Alexei Liptser were persecuted for doing exactly what lawyers are supposed to do: defending their client. Let there be no illusion: Putin does not respect the law. He uses it to punish those who defend others. He is simply a gangster running a country,” HRF Chairwoman Yulia Navalnaya said.
In its decision, the WGAD concludes that the lawyers’ detention lacks any legal basis under international law. The WGAD finds that Article 282.1 of Russia’s Criminal Code, the law under which Kobzev and Liptser were convicted, is so vague and ill-defined that it fails the most basic requirement of criminal law. The UN Special Rapporteur on Russia has also found that the same vague definitions enable the Kremlin’s targeting of the political opposition and dissenting speech.
The WGAD opinion finds that Kobzev and Liptser were detained solely for the legal representation they provided to Navalny, and expresses concern at “lawyers being punished or exiled for the views of their clients.” The WGAD emphasizes that no trial against the lawyers should have taken place, and finds numerous violations of their right to a fair trial, including the absence of an independent and impartial tribunal. Finally, the WGAD observes “a clear pattern of persecution” against Kobzev and Liptser for their work on Navalny’s legal team, concluding that the two men were deprived of their liberty on discriminatory grounds.
This opinion by the UN Working Group confirms that Vadim Kobzev and Alexei Liptser are in prison for one reason: they defended Alexei Navalny. When a regime jails lawyers for representing their clients, no one in the country can count on a defense. Democracies should press Moscow to free them now,” said HRF Chief Advocacy Officer Roberto González.
HRF considers the targeting of lawyers for their professional work to be an attack on the rule of law itself. HRF urges the international community to stand in solidarity with Vadim Kobzev, Alexei Liptser, and all prisoners of conscience in Russia, and demands that the Russian Federation release them immediately.
HRF’s Impact Litigation Program is made possible through the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation and Rising Tide Foundation.
