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Imprisoned Russian opposition leader in jail Alexei Navalny they have said they are putting unprecedented pressure to protect President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent opponent, as a Moscow court is ready to call his organization an “extreme” movement on a par with the al-Qaeda jihadist group.
In a closed court on Monday, prosecutors are expected to accept a request to claim that Navalny’s organization is “extreme” – cutting funding, which could lead to 10 years in prison.
Navalni’s attacks on dozens of offices across Russia “obviously will make their activity impossible,” opposition chief of staff Leonid Volkov told the Financial Times.
The “extreme” designation was designed to close the offices in a single blow, he said.
“It basically forbids doing anything,” said Pavel Chikov, head of the Agora legal aid foundation, which represents several of the accused people after massive national protests in favor of Navalny in January.
“Any public activity is prohibited, publicly mentioned [the group] “It’s essentially a step away from saying that Navalny’s name is extreme.”
Prior to the expected verdict, activists working for the opposition leader say they are in a state of siege. Some have closed their offices, while others have begun to clear their presence from Russian social media sites owned by pro-Kremlin companies.
Police have stepped up pressure from the January protests, which have called for Navalny to be released from prison after serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence in a case seen as an attempt to neutralize his influence. Several friends have spent short stays in prison, while others say they have had increasingly serious tactics of fear.
In Rostov, a city near the Ukrainian border, local office coordinator Ksenia Seredkina said unknown men took her away in the middle of the night and tried to force her to suck on a rubber stick – she scratched Navalny’s N letter on her arm. every time he denied it.
In Murmansk, someone shot a target from the firing range into Violetta Grudina’s mailbox and left her neighbors with flyers warning her that she was “perverting children”.
“I am just under fire. How else should you interpret a goal? “said Grudina, who runs Navalny’s office in the city on the Barents Sea, 2,000 km north of Moscow.
Since its inception in 2011 to direct opposition to Putin, Navalny has appeared ready to take on official reprisals. After recovering from Germany poisoning of nerve agents he complained that Putin had ordered that he be arrested as soon as he returned to Russia in January.
Earlier, he spent 13 stays in prison for protesting against the Kremlin, physically assaulting him several times and committing fraud against his brother Oleg, who was jailed for three and a half years, Navalny said he said he was “taking hostage”.
Over the past decade, Navalny has de facto set aside a blackout in the official media to garner more followers than state television on Youtube, and has created a network of offices with about 250 employees in the 2017 presidential candidacy.
Putin, who denies involvement in Navalny’s poisonings, said the activist is a Western agent responsible for destroying Russia. Last week, the US and the EU called for the release of Navalny in a clear reference, the president ordered “Asymmetric” and “hard” the answer would be to impose measures that would cross Moscow’s “red lines”.
The movement against the Navalny Foundation and the regional network suggests that the Kremlin wants to silence the opposition leader once and for all. Some of his main allies recently fled Moscow to Europe, and police recently arrested several workers at their regional offices and numerous opposition activists in Moscow. More arrests were made over the weekend.
The situation is particularly dire for Navalny’s supporters in the regions, as there are few or few independent media outlets and few civil society groups putting pressure on local authorities.
Volkov said the Kremlin wants to stop Navalny’s “smart vote” strategy for the September parliamentary elections, with its regional offices accepting candidates from official opposition parties with the best chance of winning Putin’s United Russia.
“[The Kremlin] they don’t know what to do with low homologation grades, and they have reason to think that our regional offices can catalyze a vote against them, ”Volkov said.“ They understand that our anti-corruption investigations will not go away despite being named. [Navalny’s organisation] extremists, terrorists and satanists “.
Lately the police have shown a growing willingness to spread to Navalny’s basic supporters, especially among the youth.
Prior to last week’s protest, several social networks said police had pressured parents to sign documents to indicate that they had suffered a criminal prosecution if their children went to a reunion. Other supporters have reportedly received threats after leaking email databases on Navalny’s website online.
In Murmansk, however, Grudina is determined to find a way to continue her activism.
“Would a pro-Putin also go to protest for him if he knew he would be beaten with sticks and thrown in jail or fined for miles? No. That’s the difference between us: we sincerely defend our opinion,” he said. “We are the last bastion of freedom, honesty and justice.”
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