[ad_1]
Russian authorities have added jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and some of his key allies to the country’s register of terrorists and extremists, the latest move in a multifaceted crackdown on opposition supporters, independent media and human rights activists. .
Alexei Navalny, the harshest critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as eight of his allies, including top aides Lyubov Sobol and Georgy Alburov, were added to the list of terrorist groups and organizations by Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service on Tuesday. The law requires that the bank accounts of those on the list be blocked.
The move comes just a year after Navalny’s arrest, which sparked a wave of massive protests across Russia in recent years. The opposition politician was detained after his return from Germany, where he spent five months receiving medical treatment from the aftermath of poisoning with a nerve agent, for which he has blamed the Kremlin. Russian authorities have denied involvement in his poisoning.
Alexei Navalny is currently serving a 2.5-year prison sentence for violating parole rules, based on a 2014 tax evasion sentence. In the months that followed, Mr. Navalny’s brother Oleg and many of his key allies, also faced criminal charges, and authorities declared Mr. Navalni’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, as well as an extensive network of regional offices, as extremist organizations, paralyzing their operations.
Russian authorities have also stepped up pressure on independent media and human rights groups in recent months. Dozens of media outlets have been labeled as foreign agents, a designation that implies additional controls by the government in an attempt to discredit them.
The crackdown on Alexei Navalny and other opposition voices in Russia has sparked outrage in the West.
On Tuesday, EU foreign policy chief Peter Stano reiterated that “this is unacceptable, and we see this as a continuing crackdown on critical voices in Russian society.”
Russian activist Lyubov Sobol, who managed to flee the country after two criminal charges last year, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that she believed the decision to add Mr. Navalni and other allies to the list of terrorists and extremists, was taken to the Kremlin.
“There is absolutely no doubt that the decision on my case, that of Navalny and my closest associates, was made in the Kremlin, with the personal contribution of Vladimir Putin. “I think he has all the issues that involve our team under a special control and it is not a decision made by lower-ranking officials.” said Mrs. Sobol.
She said the decision was likely aimed at intimidating ordinary Russians, while vowing that Mr Navalny’s team, whose key members have left Russia, would continue their work.VOA
top channel
[ad_2]
Source link
