Russian justice called “extremist” organizations linked to Alexey Navalny in new attack on opposition to Putin

Russian justice said today “extremists “to various organizations linked to Alexeï Navalny, which in practice means the immediate dismantling of the political movement of the leader of the opposition, currently in prison for a former criminal case.

“It is shown that These organizations not only deliberately disseminated information inciting hatred and hostility towards those in power, but also committed extremist crimes and crimes.”, A representative of the prosecution, Alexei Khafiarov, told reporters after the court ruling.

Your activities are prohibited on the territory of Russia at the request of the Moscow prosecutor Denis Popov. The decision is subject to immediate execution concerning the cessation of the activities of these organizations ”, explained in turn the press service of the court.

The judge handed down a sentence after 12 and a half hours of closed-door trial at Moscow City Courtthe defense reported on its Telegram channel.

When they are liquidated and prohibited, the FBK, the FZPG and the network of offices of the opposition leader’s political movement – so far spread over various regions of Russia – will not be able to disseminate any information, nor carry out any financial transaction, participate in elections or organize demonstrations.

Moreover, as the defense explained in a press release, the employees of these organizations, as well as those who commit “deliberate actions linked to their continuity or their renewal”, they risk “up to six years in prison”.

Organizations now have 10 days to appeal the sentence, something that “we will certainly do”, wrote in a statement “Equipo 29”, an NGO which participates in the defense of nonprofit foundations.

Navalny “won’t back down”

Almost immediately, Navalny promised that “Will not back down” after measurement, which allows them to be liquidated and a greater repression of their supporters.

“We will repair ourselves, we will evolve, we will adapt. But we are not going to back down from our goals and ideas. This is our country and we have no other “Navalni wrote on his Instagram account after the verdict.

Navalny was arrested in January after returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a neurotoxin attack he attributes to the Kremlin, which Russian authorities deny.

He was sentenced in February to two and a half years in prison. for violating the terms of a suspended sentence resulting from a 2014 embezzlement case which he said was politically motivated.

Closed trial

The trial took place without the presence of the media or the public, since the case was classified secret. At today’s hearing, the first real on the merits of the case, given that the last hearing only lasted one hour, all defense appeals were dismissed, including the Navalni’s request for admission into the case or the judge’s challenge.

According to the defense, “Sufficient evidence of guilt has never been presented” by the organizations, whose statement as extremists did not surprise the Leader of the Opposition and his allies.

The FBK – the scourge of illicit enrichment among senior Russian officials – and the FZPG were already declared “foreign agents” in October 2019 and December 2020., respectively, and since then persecuted by arresting their employees, freezing their assets and the archives of their offices.

The Moscow public prosecutor’s office announced on April 16 that it was going to demand the liquidation of Navalny’s organizations by “extremists”.

The argument was that “The real objectives of its activities are to create the conditions to change the foundations of the constitutional order, including the use of the “color revolution” scenario ”, alluding to popular uprisings in space promoted from abroad according to Moscow.

Even before a court decision, The prosecutor suspended some activities of the opposition political movement in April, and the judge in charge of the case did the same with the FBK and the FZPG.

Cornered by the Russian authorities and justice, the opposition leader decided on April 29 to anticipate the judicial decision that he considers inevitable and dissolve its network of offices to protect its employees from criminal prosecution.

The day after the dissolution of the headquarters of Navalny, it was learned that the Russian financial supervisor, Rosfinmonitoring, had already included this platform in the list of organizations linked to extremist and terrorist activities., which restricted their financial activities.

With information from AFP and EFE

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