Russia plans to declare Navalny’s party an “extremist group”: even wearing a t-shirt in its image could be banned

A closed-door hearing in a Moscow court is expected to officially ban the political and anti-corruption networks of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, a move that would mark the broader attempt to crush the Kremlin’s biggest political threat.. The evidence to be used in the case is itself a state secret. Navalny’s lawyer was told he would have access to the file shortly before, according to his ally Ivan Zhdanov.

If the court takes into account the general request of the prosecutor – declaring Navalny’s political group and its Anti-Corruption Foundation as extremist organizations – I would put them alongside ISIS, Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the eyes of the Russian authorities.

Rights group Amnesty International said it would be “one of the most serious attacks on the rights to freedom of expression and association in post-Soviet Russian history.” Even selling fridge magnets or wearing T-shirts with Navalny’s slogan “Russia will be happy” could result in jail time. Members of Navalny’s team could face six years in prison if they continue to work.

Navalny, Putin’s enemy, described prison life with black humor. Now your posts are just dark.

Donating to Navalny’s crowdfunding organizations would be tantamount to supporting terrorists, with sentences of up to 10 years in prison. Retweeting past videos of Navalny’s group, exposing the corruption of Russian politicians and bureaucrats, could also mean jail time.

Russian authorities have already banned Navalny and many of his allies from running for office and made repeated calling or participating in unauthorized protests a crime. Many went into exile to avoid prison.

The court ruling takes President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to quell Navalny’s influence to another level.

Navalny, poisoned by a chemical nerve agent in August and jailed in February, on Friday announced the end of a 24-day hunger strike following medical warnings he risked death. On Wednesday, thousands of protesters across Russia took to the streets to demand his release.

Opposition activists draw a parallel between Putin’s increasingly tight control and the Soviet-style government dominated by security officials and anxious to stay in power, amid growing public discontent with declining prices. wages, real prices and rising food prices.

“It reminds me of Soviet trials, when someone was declared a spy or foreign agent, then a secret trial took place behind closed doors,” said Zhdanov, director of the Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation, who fled the country. earlier this year. “Putin is trying to bring Russia back to the Soviet past.” Banning the organization as an extremist “would open the door to massive repression. The authorities really want to destroy us because our activity makes them vulnerable and they feel it, ”he said.

Putin and his government see themselves as Russia’s true patriots, and state media portray Navalny as a “Nazi” paid by foreign powers to ruin the country.

But the struggle that is taking place in Russia has to do with two competing visions of the country: one facing the exterior and democratic, and the other facing the interior, increasingly isolated and paranoid, forcing some young scientists, computer scientists and engineers, among others, to emigrate to freer countries.

“It wouldn’t be safe for our staff and the people who work for us to continue. Of course, we will have to reformulate parts of our business, but we are not going to stop, ”Zhdanov said.

Russian flags are stacked in a corner of Navalny’s headquarters in Tomsk, the Siberian city where he was poisoned last August, an attack he attributes to Russian agents acting on Putin’s orders. The Kremlin denies any relationship.

Regional Headquarters Director Ksenia Fadeyeva, 29, is one of two members of Navalny Tomsk’s team elected to the local council last year. On the wall of the office there is a large map with all the electoral districts in the city marked with a pen and numbered. “I love my country, but I know something is wrong here,” he said. “I don’t want to sit here and do nothing. I want to change things ”.

Police have already raided numerous regional offices in Navalny in recent weeks and arrested dozens of employees.

“We all know what risks we face. They may present new criminal cases or absurd charges. They will do whatever they can to ruin our lives. We understand what can happen, but we can’t think about it too much or we will go crazy, ”he said.

Fadeyeva has not commented on what could happen if the organization is banned.

Tomsk’s colleague Andrei Fateyev was sentenced to 30 days in prison for Wednesday’s protest in Tomsk. “It’s dangerous in Russia in general, whether you are a businessman, a politician or an activist,” Fateyev said in an interview earlier this month.

But he thinks “Russia will change”. “The aim of the regime is to hang on to power … But I don’t think they have the capacity to consolidate their power, as they are trying to do now,” he said.

Maria Alyokhina, a member of political militant punk rock group Pussy Riot, who was jailed for nearly two years for an anti-Putin protest in 2012 at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, said the crackdown on dissent and l imprisonment of activists that they are now “part of everyday reality” in Russia. “It happened in small steps, taking everything out of order,” said Alyokhina, who is now under house arrest, awaiting trial for her role in the January protests in support of Navalny. “All these crazy naming laws [de organizaciones no gubernamentales] as foreign agents and people as foreign agents, and the huge fines and imprisonment, ”he added.

Designating Navalny’s organizations as extremists “means if you post a link to them you can go to jail.” This means that a large part of the country can be imprisoned. We are all illegal, ”said Alyokhina, who spent 12 hours a day, six days a week in prison sewing police and army uniforms. “This is Stalin’s principle”.

An 80-year-old Muscovite who joined a massive demonstration of support for Navalny on Wednesday feared Russia was heading for a form of authoritarianism worse than that of the Soviet era. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, “we expected a better future. But we missed the time when there was openness and this ability to speak up and express your opinion to do something, ”said Galina, who spoke on condition that her last name was not used. for fear of repercussions. “Now we have this new control where the Secret Service is cracking down on everyone.”

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