Russian authorities on Friday added several close allies of the late activist Alexei Navalny to the government’s list of “extremists and terrorists.”
Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s former spokeswoman, and Maria Pevchikh, head of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, are among the latest to be included on the Rosfinmonitoring list. According to the independent news outlet Mediazona, at least nine of the 40 names on the list are linked to Navalny.
Also added on Friday were Navalny’s exiled lawyers Olga Mikhailova and Alexander Fedulov, who were earlier placed on Russia’s wanted list after three of their colleagues were arrested on charges of “extremism.”
Dmitry Nizovtsev, host of Navalny’s YouTube channel, and the channel’s producer, Nina Volokhonskaya — both currently in exile — were also designated as “terrorists and extremists.”
The remaining individuals added to the list — journalists Antonina Favorskaya and Olga Komleva, along with activist Alexei Malyarevsky — are currently imprisoned in Russia and face “extremism” charges for their associations with Navalny.
Being listed as an “extremist and terrorist” allows Rosfinmonitoring to freeze the designees’ bank accounts without a court order.
In June 2021, Russia banned Navalny's political and activist groups as “extremist” organizations following his arrest after returning to Moscow.
Navalny’s social media team noted that the blacklisting of his associates occurred exactly six months after his death on Feb. 16 in a remote Arctic prison colony.
On Thursday, his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, accused Russian authorities of failing to properly investigate her husband’s death and covering up the circumstances surrounding it.
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