Russia has decided to designate an exile group formed by allies of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny as a 'terrorist organization', Agence France-Presse reported.
Moscow has stepped up its attacks on opposition groups linked to Navalny even after he died under unclear circumstances in prison in 2024.
Navalny - a charismatic anti-corruption activist - was President Vladimir Putin's main rival in Russia, managing to attract hundreds of thousands of people to anti-Kremlin initiatives and protests and was regularly arrested and prosecuted by the authorities.
The Supreme Court of Russia has announced that it has ruled that the Anti-Corruption Foundation, registered in the United States and run by former associates of Navalny, should be defined as a “terrorist organization”, banning its activities. The court ruling said that the organization “encourages, justifies and supports terrorism”.
Navalny and his organizations were previously defined as “extremist” - a designation that carries legal consequences, banning their activities in Russia.
The Kremlin regularly uses such formulations to attack its opponents, forcing them to cease their activities or go into exile.
In response to the Supreme Court ruling, the Anti-Corruption Foundation said: “The real terrorists are Vladimir Putin and his accomplices - the people who started the war, killed civilians and political opponents and imprison people“.
The foundation said it was a “political tactic“ to suppress the opposition and warned that other independent media and human rights groups would soon suffer the same fate.
In October, when the case was filed in a Russian court, the human rights organization “Amnesty International“ said the decision “could unleash mass repressions“.
Russia has significantly stepped up its campaign to silence critics since it began its offensive in Ukraine in February 2022.
Navalny's allies claim that unpublished laboratory tests show that he was poisoned and killed in prison. Moscow has rejected any claims that Navalny was murdered.