A Moscow court has officially labeled the organization of Russia’s most famous opposition leader an ‘extremist organization’. This means that the organization of Alexei Navalny is now banned. His supporters will no longer be able to participate in the State Duma elections to be held in September.
The verdict came after a closed-door hearing; the case is being treated as a ‘state secret’ by the authorities.
Earlier, the judge already ruled that Navalny’s team had to immediately suspend all its activities pending the verdict. Team members were no longer allowed to publish anything online, no longer organize protests and their bank accounts were frozen.
Al-Qaida, IS, Navalny
According to the Russian Public Prosecution Service, Navalny’s organization is engaged in “destabilizing the country”. It also “helps international organizations to operate on Russian territory”. The Public Prosecution Service therefore demanded a total ban. Now that the organization has officially been labeled extremist, Navalny’s organization falls in the same vein as al-Qaida and IS. The Jehovah’s Witnesses denomination has also been on the Russian extremism list since 2017.
This makes it virtually impossible for Navalny’s teammates to carry out their duties. Even sharing social media posts related to Navalny’s organization could theoretically put someone behind bars for years. Let alone calling for or participating in demonstrations.
The decision is a major blow to the Russian opposition. “This will open the way to hundreds of criminal cases, each of our employees will be attacked and face a minimum of two to six years in prison,” zei Navalny’s team when the prosecution’s demand was announced.
Parliamentary elections
Since the beginning of this year, the police have arrested protesters, opposition politicians and lawyers. Critical journalists and media are silenced by labeling them as ‘foreign agents’. New laws are also being passed by the Duma all the time, making it easier for Russians to be arrested for all sorts of things.
Correspondent Iris de Graaf visited 3 young critical Russians for NOS, who also recently had to deal with this:
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