Jailed Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) is expected to face a preliminary court hearing into a move by Moscow prosecutors to label the group as “extremist” as the government continues to tighten the screws on the outspoken Kremlin critic’s supporters.
The FBK said in a tweet on April 26 that preliminary talks with the group related to the case will be held during the day, with an official hearing scheduled for April 29.
“The important thing is that we will never learn the details of the accusations against us. All of the evidence in the case has been classified as a state secret,” the FBK said.
The January arrest and subsequent imprisonment of Navalny on what are seen as trumped-up charges have worsened ties between Russia and the West, already strained by Moscow’s seizure of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and the fomenting of separatism across much of Ukraine that helped to ignite a war that has killed more than 13,000 people in the Donbas, where Moscow-backed forces hold parts of two provinces.
The FBK has rattled the Kremlin over the years with its video investigations exposing the unexplained wealth of top officials, including President Vladimir Putin.
The latest move, initiated by the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office on April 16, seeks to have the Moscow City Court label the FBK and two other organizations tied to Navalny — the Citizens’ Rights Protection Foundation and Navalny’s regional headquarters — as “extremist” as they are “engaged in creating conditions for destabilizing the social and sociopolitical situation under the guise of their liberal slogans.”
The proposal was immediately condemned by international and domestic human rights groups, who say that if the Navalny’s organizations are officially recognized as “extremist,” all of their employees could face arrest and prison terms from six to 10 years.
Last week, almost 2,000 supporters of Navalny were arrested in nationwide protests aimed at pressuring officials to allow Navalny access to proper medical treatment as fears for his life rose as he entered the third week of a hunger strike he started over the medical attention he was receiving in prison.
On April 23, Navalny ended the hunger strike, saying he had “achieved enough,” though he continues to demand that he be examined by his personal doctors for acute pain in his back and legs.
Navalny was arrested on January 17 upon his return to Russia from Germany, where he had received life-saving treatment for a poisoning attack in Siberia in August.
He has insisted that his poisoning with a Soviet-style chemical nerve agent was ordered directly by Putin. The Kremlin has denied any role in the poisoning.
In February, a Moscow court ruled that while in Germany, Navalny had violated the terms of parole from an old embezzlement case that is widely considered to be politically motivated.
Navalny’s 3 1/2-year suspended sentence from the case was converted to a prison term, though the court said he will serve 2 1/2 years in prison given time already served in detention.
The United States and European Union have imposed sanctions on Russia over the Navalny affair and the government’s crackdown on demonstrators earlier this year at rallies protesting Navalny’s arrest.
