Russian lawmakers on Thursday passed a bill that expands the grounds for adding individuals to the "terrorists and extremists" registry maintained by state financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring.
Current law allows the authorities to include individuals accused in criminal cases of extremist and terrorist activities.
Under the new bill, the grounds for inclusion in the registry would extend to those who commit crimes motivated by political, religious, ideological, racial or national hatred.
The bill must now be approved by the upper-house Federation Council and receive President Vladimir Putin’s signature before it can become law.
Critics argue that the new bill gives law enforcement a potent means to broaden extrajudicial crackdowns on civil society.
Veteran human rights defender Oleg Orlov, who was sentenced this year for “discrediting” the Russian army’s actions in Ukraine and released in the historic August prisoner exchange with the West, was accused by Russian prosecutors of “political hatred” with his criticism of the war.
Artist Sasha Skochilenko, who was sentenced to seven years in prison for swapping out price tags with anti-war messages before being released in the same Aug. 1 prisoner exchange, was also accused of showing “political hatred” toward the Russian Armed Forces for its actions against Ukraine.
Being added to Russia's list of “extremists and terrorists” allows the authorities to freeze designees’ bank accounts without a court order.
Among those to be added to the Rosfinmonitoring list this year are Kira Yarmysh and Maria Pevchikh, both close allies of the late opposition activist Alexei Navalny.
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