The Navalni network, persecuted by justice, dissolves all its offices in Russia

Alexei Navalni appears by videoconference from prison in a Moscow court this Thursday.

The political movement of the Russian opposition Alexei Navalni closes its more than 40 offices in Russia. The network, accused of being an “extremist organization” and which has frozen its activities by mandate of the Russian prosecutor's office, has had to dissolve forced by the increasing repression of the authorities to any entity linked to the opposition and its allies, which with its leader imprisoned seeks options to keep the movement afloat. Navalni, looking haggard in his first public appearance after his 24-day hunger strike to demand proper medical treatment, charged Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday. From prison and by videoconference before the court that tried him for a defamation case,the opponent has launched a strong argument and accused the government of wanting to turn Russian citizens into "slaves".

During the campaign as a presidential candidate in the 2018 elections - in which he was finally vetoed - Navalni had managed to create an active political network in numerous Russian provinces, from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad.

The opponent never managed to register a political party, but with the wickers he forged with his Anticorruption Foundation (FBK), created in 2011, and the fame of research on the Russian political and economic elite - such as information on the patrimony of the then prime minister , Dmitri Medvedev, who created a great scandal in 2017-, did weave a mesh of offices and delegations, unprecedented in the Russian 'controlled democracy' and very active in local politics, which has now been doomed to closure, cornered by the Justice.

More information

• More than 5,000 arrested in a new wave of protests in Russia for the release of Navalni

• Russia's justice cornered the Navalni political movement by suspending all its activities in the country

The main political strategist of the Navalni movement, Leonid Volkov, announced this Thursday the closure of its more than 40 delegations throughout the country.

Entities that had managed to influence and give a new tone to the concept of 'political opposition' in Russia.

"Unfortunately, we must be honest: it is impossible to work under these conditions," said Volkov on his Telegram channel.

"We are officially dissolving the network of Navalni offices," added the opponent, who explained that continuing to operate in the same way would expose its members to complex and harsh criminal proceedings.

The Russian prosecution accuses the political movement and the Anti-Corruption Foundation of being an “extremist organization” disguised as a political movement and of wanting to “change the foundations of the Constitutional order” and “destabilize the social and economic situation”. He has ordered a paralysis of all his political activity - including participation in campaigns - and frozen his accounts.

If they are declared “extremist organizations” in the judicial process that takes place these days in Moscow behind closed doors and with secret evidence, the employees, donors and supporters of the political movement and the foundation could face large fines and penalties of up to six years of jail in yet another chapter of the Kremlin's attacks against dissent. Earlier, he declared the foundation as a "foreign agent", a label with extremely negative historical connotations associated with espionage and foreign influence and that entails complex audits and state controls and that civil rights organizations denounce as a formula to sabotage and hinder the job.

Municipal workers cover a mural with the activist's portrait and the slogan "Hero of our time", which appeared on the wall of a building in St. Petersburg on Thursday.

Ivan Petrov / AP

Volkov explained that the closure of the offices and dissolution does not imply a ruse to change its name and continue operating.

Some of the delegations will become independent political entities involved in local politics.

Others, the political strategist acknowledged, will disappear.

“Most will continue their work as self-sufficient, independent regional political and civic movements, led by strong people.

This means that everything we have done together so far will not have been in vain ”, he commented.

The future of the Navalni network is now at stake, with its political headquarters in tatters and many of its allies in prison for the latest protests or under house arrest.

Aware that the repressive measures against his sympathizers are increasingly harsh, the opposition leader has launched an energetic speech this Thursday from prison during the defamation trial of a veteran of World War II.

The opponent has been sentenced to pay a fine of about 11,000 euros.

With his head shaved, visibly thinner after the hunger strike, wearing glasses and wearing a prison uniform with a card pinned to his lapel with the slogan “risk of flight”, Navalni has spoken by videoconference broadcast on the screens of the court of Moscow before his wife, his lawyers and some journalists.

The opponent, who has allowed himself to make some jokes about his “corpse-like” appearance and his recent struggle to get 60 grams of cooked carrot in jail to regain his form after the hunger strike, has accused Putin of to be a false patriot and to use the glory of the victory of the Red Army to maintain and "occupy" power. “More and more people see that the king is naked, this naked king must realize that he cannot do anything. It cannot do anything to improve the country. He is frantically searching for pieces of sanctity to steal, to appropriate them for his own purposes, ”said the opposition leader, comparing President Putin with the emperor character from Hans Christian Andersen's tale.