Russia Declares the Oppositionist Navalny as a “Terrorist and Extremist”

Placing Navalny on the “terrorist” list on the state financial monitoring service, Rosfinmonitoring means that he and his team members are subject to restrictions on banking transactions and must seek approval whenever they want to use their accounts

 

Leading Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has been jailed for a year, has been inserted on the list of “terrorists and extremists” by Russia’s federal financial monitoring service, Rosfinmonitoring, AFP news agency reports.

The decision is part of measures to crack down on the opposition and critical voices in Russia, AFP writes.

The “terrorist” list of the state financial monitoring service means that Navalny and members of his team are subject to restrictions on banking transactions and should seek approval whenever they wish to use their accounts.

The list also includes one of Navalny’s close associates, Ljubov Sobolj, who fled into exile before being prosecuted.

Sobolj, one of the figures of Navalny’s popular YouTube channel, told the media that “Putin declares terrorists all those he does not like.”

Navalny’s chief of staff, Leonid Volkov, wrote on Facebook:

I am proud to work in our good team of “extremists and terrorists”. By devaluing the meaning of words and turning their meaning inside out, the Kremlin is digging a deeper hole for itself. They are doing everything they can to make those who still believe in Putin stop believing in him.

According to the Anti-Corruption Fund, in addition to Navalny’s organization, which was banned in June, at least nine people linked to the opposition movement have been added to the list. In mid-January, two of Navalny’s main collaborators, Ivan Zhdanov and Leonid Volkov, who live in exile, were added to the list.

Rosfinmonitoring’s list includes thousands of individuals and hundreds of political, Islamist, religious and ultranationalist organizations banned in Russia, such as the Taliban and the Islamic State.

Navalny was arrested at Moscow airport on January 17, 2021, after returning from a recovery in Germany after severe poisoning in Siberia in August of the previous year, for which, as he said, Russian President Vladimir Putin was responsible. His arrest has sparked tensions in relations with the West seeking his release.

Navalny was later sentenced to two and a half years in prison for the “embezzlement” case, which he described as political persecution.

Navalny’s brother, Oleg, was sentenced to one-year probation in August last year. He was among a group accused of inciting people to violate the Covid-19 restrictions by attending unauthorized protests in January 2021.

Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor blocked 49 Navalny-related websites in July last year.

 

 

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