President Vladimir Putin signed the law on Friday after Parliament had given its approval. According to the opposition, the law is intended, among other things, to prevent supporters of the imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny from participating in the Russian parliamentary elections.
The signed text of the law was published on the official law portal on Friday. The law enables the Russian authorities to exclude certain candidates from all elections for collaborating with “extremist and terrorist” organizations.
Navalny offices also affected
The public prosecutor’s office had recently applied for a court order to classify support organizations of the oppositionist Navalny as “extremist”. She justified this with the fact that they aimed to destabilize the “social situation” in Russia “under the guise of liberal slogans”. It is almost certain that the prosecution’s request will possibly be granted as early as next week.
The network of regional offices of the Kremlin critic Navalny had already been classified as “extremist” by the financial authorities. Nawalny’s team sees this as the Kremlin’s endeavor to eliminate the opposition in the face of growing dissatisfaction among the population due to economic stagnation and several corruption scandals.
The law affects not only members of Navalny’s team, but possibly tens of thousands of Russians who have supported his work with donations. According to the law, chairmen of “extremist” groups are banned from standing for parliamentary elections for five years, while supporters and those who helped fund their work are banned from standing for three years.
Sign the law on the day of Navalny’s 45th birthday
Putin signed the law on Navalny’s 45th birthday. The Kremlin critic is currently in jail. He had survived an attack with the Novichok nerve agent last August and blamed the Kremlin for the attack. After his treatment and recovery in the Berlin Charité, he was arrested on his return in January and sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
“I hope I can say today that my success last year was to turn away from feeling like a ‘caged animal’,” after the “many strange things that have happened to me,” wrote Navalny on the online network Instagram .
Leonid Volkov, one of Navalny’s biggest supporters, wrote on the Telegram messenger service that he believed Putin deliberately signed the law on Navalny’s birthday. (AFP)