Russia May Ban Alexei Navalny's Network, Allies Could Face Jail If They Continue to Work

Russia is expected to officially ban the political and anti-corruption networks of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, a move that would mark the most sweeping attempt to crush the government’s greatest political threat.

The ban may be announced in a closed-door Moscow court hearing on Monday and the evidence to be used in the case is itself a state secret, a report in The Washington Post said.

Navalny’s attorney has been told he will get access to the file shortly beforehand, according to Navalny ally Ivan Zhdanov.

If the court declares Navalny’s political group and his Anti-Corruption Foundation extremist organizations, then it would put them alongside the Islamic State, al-Qaida and the Taliban in the eyes of Russian authorities.

The report also quoted Amnesty International saying that it would be “one of the most serious blows for the rights to freedom of expression and association in Russia’s post-Soviet history.”

It added that even selling refrigerator magnets or wearing T-shirts with Navalny’s slogan “Russia will be happy” could bring imprisonment. Navalny’s team members could face six years in jail if they continued to work.

Russian authorities have barred Navalny and many of his allies from contesting elections and made it a crime to call unauthorized protests or repeatedly participate in them. Many have fled into exile to avoid jail.

A source close to the Kremlin predicted Navalny’s allies would struggle after the ruling, Reuters reported.

“It will be their end as an agent of influence,” said the source. “They will be forced to come up with new ways of communicating with their supporters … They’ll need time to gain momentum again.”

The same source said the authorities were ready to jail some of Navalny’s allies whom they regarded as the most radical.

“Only a few are likely to go to jail, the real hotheads,” the source said. “The authorities don’t want to look like cannibals.”

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