A Moscow court on Mondayarrested in absentia four allies of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.At least eight exiled Navalny associates face criminalcharges under wartime censorship laws, according to the Navally-affiliated news outlet Sirena.Moscows Basmanny District Court ordered Kira Yarmysh, Maria Pevchikh, Dmitry Nizovtsev and Anna Biryukova to serve two months in pre-trial detention once they are arrested or extradited back to Russia.Pevchikh, who chairs Navalnys Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF), is accused of vandalism, spreading fake news about the Russian army and creating an extremist organization.Navalnys spokeswoman Yarmysh and Nizovtsev, who hosts the daily opposition news program Popular Politics on Navalnys YouTube channel, are accused of participating in an extremist organization and spreading war fakes.Biryukova, who heads public opinion research at ACF, is accused of making public calls to commit terrorism.Russias Interior Ministry issuedarrest warrants for Pevchikh, Nizovtsev andBiryukova in December.Yarmysh has beenwanted since March 2022 on separate charges of violating Covid restrictions.Russia banned ACF and Navalny's nationwide political network as "extremist" organizations in 2021, a move widely seen as retaliation for their work to expose corruption among Russia's elites.Pevchikh holds dual Russian-British citizenship and resides in the United Kingdom.Many Navalny associates have fled Russia under threat of imprisonment amid a widening wartime crackdown on dissent.