Russian regulator blocks Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny’s website

Authorities move to bar access to websites linked to opposition leader as September parliamentary election nears.

Russian authorities have blocked access to jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s website ahead of an upcoming parliamentary poll, along with those of 48 other individuals and organisations affiliated with him. Monday’s move came after a Russian court last month approved a prosecutor’s request to declare organisations linked to Navalny as “extremist”, in effect outlawing them and preventing his allies from taking part in September’s election to the State Duma lower house. Russian Internet regulator Roskomnadzor said in a statement to Reuters it had moved to block navalny.com, the banned movement’s main website, and others inside Russia, at the request of the prosecutor general.