The network of Alexei Navalny's political offices in Russia is being closed, a top ally of the jailed opposition leader announced Thursday, amid the government efforts to disband them and outlaw Navalny's Foundation for Fighting Corruption as extremist groups.
The Moscow prosecutor's office petitioned a court this month to declare both the regional offices and Navalny's anti-corruption organization as extremist groups, a label that would outlaw their activities, expose members and supporters to lengthy prison terms, and pose a major challenge for Navalny’s embattled team.
Leonid Volkov, who as Navalny’s top strategist runs the regional offices, said Thursday that preserving the network in its current state "is impossible" because of the extremism charges but rebranding them wouldn’t help either.
"Unfortunately, it is impossible to work in these conditions. We’re officially dismantling the network of Navalny’s headquarters," Volkov said on the messaging app Telegram.
Volkov's statement comes amid a sweeping crackdown on Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critic, and his organizations. The politician is currently in prison, and dozens of his aides and associates have been under arrest, targeted for raids by law enforcement, or facing criminal charges.
A Russian court has scheduled the main hearing in the "extremism" case against Navalny's activist network for May 17, his lawyers also said on Thursday.
The court is expected to consider a request from prosecutors to declare the main pillars of Navalny's political organization as extremist.
Earlier this week, the prosecutor's office issued an injunction ordering the offices to suspend their activities pending the court ruling, and a court in Moscow imposed restrictions on the Foundation for Fighting Corruption.
The foundation's director, Ivan Zhdanov, said the organization will continue to work despite the restrictions.
Navalny set up a network of offices in dozens of regions when he was campaigning to run against Putin in the 2018 presidential election. He eventually was barred from running but kept the infrastructure in place.
The regional "headquarters," as the team called them, began their own investigations of graft by local officials and recruited activists, some of whom later ran for public office themselves. The offices also were instrumental in organizing nationwide rallies in support of Navalny this year.
In his statement, Volkov assured supporters that Navalny's team wasn't giving up.
"The networks of Navalny's headquarters doesn't exist anymore, but there are dozens of strong and tough regional politicians, thousands of his supporters, there are strong and independent political organizations which will work on investigations and elections, public campaigns and rallies. You will help them, and they will succeed," Volkov said.
Navalny was arrested in January upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin – accusations that Russian officials reject.
His arrest triggered protests across Russia that proved to be the biggest show of defiance in years. But they didn’t stop authorities from putting Navalny on trial for violating the terms of a suspended sentence while he was in Germany.
The sentence stemmed from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that Navalny has characterized as politically motivated. He was ordered to serve 2 1/2 years in prison and last month was transferred to a penal colony notorious for its harsh conditions.
Some of his top allies were slapped with criminal charges and placed under house arrest, and dozens of his associates in the regions were targeted with detentions and raids.