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10-06-2021
MOSCOW: A Russian court has outlawed the organizations founded by Alexey Navalny by labeling them “extremist”, a move criticized by the opposition leader’s supporters as part of a campaign to muzzle President Vladimir Putin’s opponents months before parliamentary elections.
The Moscow City Court’s ruling on Wednesday, effective immediately prevents people associated with Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption (FBK) and his network of regional offices across Russia from seeking public office.
The label also means that activists who have worked with the organizations, anyone who donated to them, and even those who simply shared the groups’ materials could be prosecuted and receive lengthy prison terms.
“It was found that these organizations not only disseminated information that incited hatred and enmity against government officials, but also committed extremist actions,” Alexei Zhafyarov, a spokesman for the prosecutors who had filed the motion, said outside the court.
Russia’s list of “extremist organizations” currently consists of more than 30 entities, including the ISIL (ISIS) armed group, al-Qaeda and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
‘Final blow’
Navalny, Putin’s most prominent rival, was arrested in January upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin, an accusation that Russian officials reject.
In February, the 44-year-old opposition leader was given a prison term of two and a half years for violating the terms of a suspended sentence from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that he dismissed as politically motivated.
Media reporting from Moscow, said the court delivered its ruling after a “mammoth” session that went on for nearly 13 hours and stretched into Wednesday evening.
He said the decision “effectively” dealt “the final blow for Navalny’s political organization that he spent years building up to try and counter Putin”.
In recent years, the FBK has pressured the Kremlin by publishing investigations into high-level corruption among the political elite. Such probes have in turn spurred massive street demonstrations.
Smith said Putin “remains popular” in the run-up to the September 19 elections, but there were concerns his United Russia party would lose seats.
“This is another attempt to head off any threat to them and cut off vocal opposition”, he said noting that those effectively leading the opposition to Putin were now either in jail, in exile or facing charges. (Int’l News Desk)
