Russia advances to veto Navalni allies in legislative elections

Alexei Navalni, at the Moscow Municipal Court, last February.- / Sputnik / ContactPhoto

The obstacles to the political participation of the allies of the Russian opposition Alexei Navalni are increasing. While the Russian justice judges the entities linked to the dissident, accused of being “extremist organizations” and threatens to outlaw them, the Parliament (the Duma) advances a bill that prohibits the members of associations thus labeled and any person related to them participate in legislative elections. A new movement that would help close the way to dissent in the parliamentary elections scheduled for September.

The process that will decide whether the Navalni political movement and its Anti-Corruption Foundation is an “extremist organization” has not yet been concluded, but opponents have no doubts that they will receive the label. Weeks ago they decided to dissolve and close the more than 40 offices that they had opened in different cities of Russia to try to protect their employees and collaborators, who could face heavy fines and up to six years in prison.

The new bill, which was approved on Tuesday in the first reading in the Duma, will prevent not only people who have held positions in these “extremist” entities from participating in elections for five years, but also people involved in the activity of those organizations by providing financial, "organizational, methodological, consultative" support for up to three years before the label is formally imposed on them, according to the text.

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The move is yet another blow to the Russian opposition. But he is primarily targeting Navalni's allies, who are serving two and a half years in prison after being convicted last February of violating the terms of probation for a controversial and long-standing case when he was in Germany last year, recovering from the Very serious poisoning suffered in August in Siberia and for which the West blames the Kremlin.

The bill is still two more steps away from reaching the table of Russian President Vladimir Putin, but civil rights organizations, lawyers and even deputies from parties of the so-called

systemic opposition

-

such

as the Communist Party, whose deputies all voted against, or the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, which usually support the government party, have criticized the text that they believe could violate the Constitution. The initiative is, said Communist MP Andrei Kurinni, "like the witch hunt of a known period in American history."

The timing and terms of the legal text leave no doubt that it is being adopted "expressly" for the September parliamentary elections, points out lawyer Anastasia Burakova, from the Human Rights Project organization, linked to the

Open Russia

brand

, founded by tycoon and opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Burakova points out that its retroactive effect is also unconstitutional: "A person cannot be punished for an act that was not a crime at the time of its commission," he explains by telephone. "I suspect that they are going to clean the field completely of anyone who, in one way or another, is associated with the Navalni structures: those who supported their investigations, their political headquarters or even those who were volunteers," he warns.

Demonstration in support of Navalni, on April 21 in Prague (Czech Republic) .MARTIN DIVISEK / EFE

The scale of those affected is also large because the legal text, for the moment and in the absence of amendments, is arbitrary and gives the authorities the power to stretch and interpret it. The Kremlin, which has sharpened its crackdown on the opposition, is moving faster and faster to clear the way for the party it supports, United Russia, in the autumn parliaments. The political formation, chaired by former prime minister and former president Dimitri Medvedev, now head of the National Security Council, has reached low popularity lows, with 30% in voting intention, according to polls, and the Kremlin fears that with those willows cannot maintain the super majority of almost 75% of the seats it now holds. He also fears a hot summer of protests, like the one in 2019,when the veto of independent candidates to the Moscow municipal elections triggered large mobilizations and fueled social discontent.

The

number two

of Navalni, Liubov Sobol, and other allies of the opposition who sought to attend the elections as independent could with the new legal text see their doors completely closed. Although the truth is that the authorities already often hinder dissent to attend, attempts to guarantee the tools have increased. The Navalni Anticorruption Foundation is classified as a “foreign agent”, a label that implies that they receive some kind of support from abroad that not only has a strong negative charge but also involves severe audits and financial burdens and that the authorities can impose on entities. , the media and more recently people.

In April, the Duma approved a new law on political participation that vetoes access to certain municipal positions to people related to a “foreign agent” entity and forces candidates linked to those organizations to clearly indicate this on the ballot papers, the electoral propaganda. The measure could also be used against people related to the Smart vote initiative, designed in 2019 by Navalni's team for the Moscow municipal elections and which studies and publishes which registered candidates have the best chance of winning United Russia.