Navalny’s top aide, Ivan Zhdanov, director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), announced on his Facebook, that his 66-year-old father, Yuri Zhdanov, was arrested over the weekend and a criminal case against him opened.

Yuri Zhdanov was sent to pretrial detention, in the city of Rostov-On-Don, after having his home searched on March 26th.

The younger Zhdanov, blamed the Kremlin for his father’s arrest, calling the case an “entirely new level of baseness and meanness for the presidential administration.” “I won’t hide it, for me this is the worst thing that could happen.”

Zhdanov, explained that before his father retired last summer, he worked as an official in a remote town for several years.

“My father worked in the North, in the Nenets district in the village of Seekers, at first he was a deputy head, in recent years he worked on some low village position and since last summer he has been retired. – said Zhdanov. “The point is that, as a member of the housing commission, he recommended that the head of the village allocate an apartment to a woman under a social tenancy agreement.”

Later it turned out that the family was already receiving a housing subsidy. The contract was terminated, and the apartment was returned to the state.

“I do not know if the situation was intentionally organized to frame him. The events took place in July 2019, during the peak of the campaign in the Moscow municipal elections,” according to Zhdanov.

“Now we are looking for a father in different pre-trial detention centers in Rostov. Or maybe they were already taken to Arkhangelsk. I will not hide, for me this is the worst thing that could happen, ”concluded Zhdanov.

The arrests of anyone associated with Aleksei Navalny continue, as Putin tries to crush the opposition movement. Arrest and intimidation of family, is a commonly used tactic to pressure and silence, anyone speaking out. Over the past several weeks, there have been ongoing arrests, across the country, as well as, intimidation tactics used, of anyone Putin views as challenging his power. Meanwhile, Navalny remains in a penal colony, with his health deteriorating, according to the latest update from his lawyer.

Will continue monitoring Navalny’s situation and will update.