Russia outlaws Putin critic Alexey Navalny's organizations as 'extremist'

A Russian court has outlawed the organizations of the opposition leader Alexey Navalny by labelling them as “extremist.”

A Russian court has outlawed the organizations of the opposition leader Alexey Navalny by labelling them "extremist" as the Kremlin moves to crush Navalny's movement following his jailing earlier this year. The ruling by Moscow's City Court puts Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, the FBK, and its regional political offices alongside terror groups like the Islamic State and means that anyone publicly supporting Navalny could now face lengthy prison sentences, as well as being barred from running in elections. Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent critic, was sentenced to two and half years in a prison camp in February after surviving a nerve agent poisoning last summer that independent investigations, like the one led by Bellingcat, have linked to the Kremlin. The move to outlaw Navalny's movement is part of a sweeping and unprecedented crackdown under Putin to stifle dissent that has intensified in recent months. It is widely seen by rights groups and independent observers as an effort to clear the field of anti-Kremlin opposition ahead of Russia's parliamentary elections in September.