RUSSIA ORDERS NAVALNY GROUPS TO SUSPEND ACTIVITIES

Mon 26 April 2021:

Russian prosecutors on Monday suspended the activities of Alexei Navalny’s regional offices, in a move his team said would essentially shut down the jailed opposition figure’s decade-long movement against President Vladimir Putin.

The order came as a court began considering whether to designate Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and his regional offices as extremist organisations, putting them on par with the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda and banning them in Russia.

FBK published screenshots of a decision by the Moscow prosecutor’s office ordering Navalny’s nationwide network to stop working while the court deliberated the extremist designations.

The Moscow City Court confirmed that the activities of the group’s regional network were suspended, but clarified that prosecutors had the power to make the decision and said that a final court ruling on designating the group as extremist was still due.

The regional offices of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s activist network said on Monday they would no longer publish information on social networks due to an extremism case against them launched by Russian authorities.

“Unfortunately we can no longer work in our previous format,” the St. Petersburg branch wrote on its Telegram channel. “It is not safe for our employees and supporters. Starting today no information will appear on this page. It will be frozen.”