The main opponent of President Vladimir Putin, Alexei Navalni, imprisoned for a year in Russia, was added this Tuesday (25) to an official list of terrorists and extremists of the country’s financial surveillance service, Rosfinmonitoring, in yet another measure. from Moscow to asphyxiate political opposition.
In practice, Navalni will be subject to limits on banking transactions and will need authorization every time he wants to use his accounts. Another nine people linked to him were also placed on the list, according to the Anti-Corruption Fund, an organization led by Navalni and banned by the Kremlin in June.
Right-hand man of the opposition, Leonid Volkov mocked the situation in a post on Facebook: “I am proud to work with our good team of ‘extremists and terrorists'”. “By devaluing the meaning of these words, the Kremlin is making those who still believe in Putin stop believing in him.”
This month, Volkov and another Navalni supporter, Ivan Khdanov, were also included in the list, which includes terrorist groups such as the Islamic State (IS). Lyubov Sobol, one of the faces of Navalni’s popular YouTube channel, told local radio that Putin thus declared anyone who didn’t like his government a terrorist. He was one of nine names included on the list along with Navalni.
Navalni has been in prison for a year in a penal colony, accused of violating the terms of his parole by leaving the country. He was detained upon landing in Moscow and has already accused officials of denying him access to adequate medical treatment and engaging in a practice he compares to torture.
Before, he was in Germany, where he was receiving treatment after a poisoning he suffered in Siberia and which he blames on the Russian government – the Kremlin denies it. Putin’s opponent even fell into a coma.
Since then, Russian courts have banned the two organizations linked to it — the Anti-Corruption Fund and an associated entity, the Organization for the Protection of Citizens’ Rights — as “extremists”; dozens of websites linked to the opposition were also blocked.
In October, Navalni was awarded the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for human rights, one of the highest honors bestowed by the European Union.
Local news agencies also reported on Tuesday that the Russian federal penitentiary service demanded that Navalni’s brother, Oleg, receive a real prison sentence, not probation – when there is a conditional suspension of the execution of the sentence -, to which he was sentenced. in August for the alleged role in organizing demonstrations during the Covid pandemic.
Despite being in prison, Navalni continues to call on Russians to oppose Putin. He recently declared that he “doesn’t regret for a second” about returning to the country. The arrest sparked several protests last year, but the acts were violently repressed.
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