‘Putin is afraid’: Russia won’t drop Navalny ‘terrorist’ status even though he’s dead
‘Putin is doing this to scare you. He wants you to be afraid even to mention Alexei and gradually forget his name’
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Your support makes all the difference.A request to remove late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny from a list of “terrorists and extremists” has been rejected despite his death last year, his widow Yulia Navalnaya has revealed – saying that it shows Vladimir Putin is still afraid of her husband.
Russia’s financial watchdog, Rosfinmonitoring, said in a letter published by Ms Navalnaya that her late husband had been criminally investigated for money laundering and financing terrorism. Because it had not been informed of a move to drop the case, Mr Navalny was still on the list, the letter said.
Nearly a year has passed since Mr Navalny, Russia’s most prominent political dissident, was announced dead by Russian authorities while serving time in a “special regime” penal colony in central Russia. The 47-year-old had reportedly fallen unwell after a walk at the jail before losing consciousness.
Mr Navalny was serving sentences totalling more than 30 years on a number of charges, widely rejected by the international community as trumped up. Ms Navalnaya believes that Putin is responsible for Mr Navalny’s death and has offered a reward to witnesses who may have evidence that he was murdered. World leaders have lined up to lay blame for the death at Putin’s door.
The Kremlin has rejected the allegation. Russian investigators say Mr Navalny died of natural causes.
Ms Navalnaya said Putin is “afraid” of her late husband “even after he killed him” in a message posted on Telegram.
The terrorist and extremist label for her husband is only being used as a tool to intimidate Russians away from political disobedience, she said.
"Why does Putin need this? Obviously, not to prohibit Alexei from opening bank accounts. This is no longer possible," she said. "Putin is doing this to scare you. He wants you to be afraid even to mention Alexei and gradually forget his name. But no one will forget."
Ms Navalnaya herself is on the list, which empowers Rosfinmonitoring to freeze the subject’s bank account. Three lawyers who worked for her late husband, who are also on the list, are due to be sentenced next week on charges of belonging to an extremist group.
Russian prosecutors say the lawyers enabled Mr Navalny’s subversive activity even while he was in prison - but supporters contend they were simply doing their job and that their prosecution marks a new era of political repression under the Putin regime.
Verdicts against the three lawyers - Vadim Kobzev, Alexei Liptser and Igor Sergunin - are expected to be delivered on January 17. The trial, which opened in September, has been held behind closed doors.
Mr Navalny condemned the arrests in February 2024 as “outrageous”, and described it as part of a plan to isolate him in jail.
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