As part of a broad Kremlin crackdown on the opposition, Russian authorities have added the widow of opposition leader Alexei Navalny to a list of “terrorists and extremists.”
Yulia Navalny, an expatriate, was ordered to be arrested earlier this week by a Moscow court on suspicion of belonging to an extremist organization. According to the verdict, if and when Ms. Navalnaya goes back to Russia, she will be arrested.
Following suit, Ms. Navalnaya was added to the list of “terrorists and extremists” by Russia’s Federal Service for Financial Monitoring on Thursday. This designation, which entails limitations on bank transactions, has been applied to opposition members on a large scale.
The most formidable political opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr. Navalny, passed away in February in an Arctic prison colony while serving a 19-year sentence for radicalism, which he had denounced as being driven by politics.
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Authorities have not released any information regarding Mr. Navalny’s passing other than to say that he fell ill after going for a walk. Mr. Navalny was placed under arrest after returning to Moscow in January 2021 from Germany, where he had been recovering from the nerve agent poisoning he had suffered in 2020 and had attributed to the Kremlin.
Ms. Navalnaya has pledged to carry out Mr. Putin’s actions and accused him of being the cause of her husband’s passing. Russian officials have categorically denied any knowledge of the poisoning and demise of Mr. Navalny. Kira Yarmysh, a spokesman for Ms. Navalnaya, offered her thoughts on the latest action taken by the authorities on social platform X, saying that “if they are so fussy it means that Yulia does everything right”.
The accusations made against Ms. Navalnaya have not been made public by Russian authorities. They seem to have to do with authorities labeling the regional offices of Mr. Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption as extreme. Many of Mr. Navalny’s personal friends and team members were forced to flee Russia after a 2021 court decision outlawed his foundation and its regional offices; those who remained threatened prosecution.
On similar allegations, several attorneys who represented Mr. Navalny as well as reporters who covered his actions have been imprisoned. Since Russia dispatched soldiers into Ukraine in February 2022, the crackdown by the Kremlin on opposition activists, independent media, and government critics has been worse.
For their rallies and statements criticizing the war in Ukraine, hundreds have been charged with crimes, and thousands have received fines or short jail sentences.
