MOSCOW – A Moscow court will on Tuesday limit the activities of an organization founded through imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, pending a ruling on banning the organization as an extremist group.
The Moscow City Court’s ruling on the Navalny Foundation for Combating Corruption came amid a radical crackdown on Russian President Vladimir Putin, the top critic, his allies and his political infrastructure.
The Moscow prosecutor sent a petition to court this month to classify the navalny base and network of regionals as extremist teams and ban their activities, exposing members and supporters to lengthy criminal penalties.
If the court accepts the request, it would be a fatal blow to Navalny’s besathed team, who has been since January and many of its affiliates have been arrested or faced crime charges.
On Monday, the prosecution ordered Navalny’s in dozens of Russian regions to suspend its operations, which led them to close their doors, but Tuesday’s resolution on the basis simply prevented it from exhausting certain activities.
Ivan Pavlov, a lawyer representing the foundation, said the organization no longer allows the use of media or the Internet to stream content or organize rallies and public events, participate in elections, or use bank deposits.
However, restrictions on the foundation will disrupt his work, director Ivan Zhdanov said on social media, and he said the maximum restrictions apply to the activities of the anti-corruption organization.
“Some nonsense, ” tweeted Zhdanov. (These) will somehow influence our work. “
The Navalny Foundation opened its doors 10 years ago and has since attacked senior Russian officials with accusations of corruption, in the form of colorful videos widely watched on YouTube.
One of his last messages, which garnered 116 million views, alleges that a sumptuous Black Sea palace built for Putin as a component of an elaborate corruption program, the Kremlin has denied any link to Putin.
Together with the foundation, Navalny established a vast network of regional offices in dozens of Russian regions while campaigning to oppose Putin in the 2018 presidential election.
Regional sites began their own investigations into the grafts of local officials and recruited activists, some of whom subsequently served in public office. The sites have also played a key role in organizing national rallies to Navalny this year.
Navalny himself was arrested in January on his return from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from nerve agent poisoning, which he attributes to the Kremlin, accusations that Russian officials reject.
The arrest sparked protests across Russia that proved to be the biggest demonstration of defiance in years, however, they did not save the government from bringing Navalny to justice for violating the situations of a suspended sentence while in Germany. A 2014 embezzlement conviction that Navalny described as politically motivated. He was sentenced to two and a half years in a crime and last month was transferred to a penal colony known for his complicated situations.
The base and regional offices have been attacked through raids, fines and arrests by activists before, but the petition opposing extremism takes tension to a new level, Navalny’s allies said.
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