Russia has escalated its campaign against critics of the Kremlin, ruling on Thursday to label an exiled group set up by allies of the deceased opposition leader Alexei Navalny a “terrorist organisation.”
Alexei Navalny
Moscow has been aggressively targeting opposition groups and those connected to Navalny, even after his death in unexplained circumstances in an Arctic prison in 2024. All major Russian opposition movements currently operate in exile.
Navalny, a charismatic anti-corruption campaigner was President Vladimir Putin’s primary domestic rival. He drew huge crowds to the streets in protest against the Kremlin and was routinely arrested and harassed by authorities.
Russia’s Supreme Court announced Thursday that it had officially ruled to label the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF), which is registered in the United States and run by Navalny’s former associates, a “terrorist organisation.” The court claimed the organization was “aimed at promoting, justifying, and supporting terrorism.”
Navalny and his associated organizations had previously been designated “extremist”—a label that carries similar legal consequences, including the outlawing of their activities inside Russia. The Kremlin routinely employs such designations to target opponents, forcing them to shut down or flee the country.
In direct response to the ruling, the Anti-Corruption Foundation stated: “The real terrorists are Vladimir Putin and his accomplices—the people who started the war, kill civilians and political opponents and imprison people.”
They denounced the ruling as a “political tactic” designed to suppress opposition and warned that other independent media and human rights groups would soon face the same fate. Amnesty International had previously warned, when the case was filed, that the decision “could unleash a floodgate of mass reprisals.”
Russia has massively ramped up its efforts to silence critics since launching its offensive on Ukraine in February 2022. Navalny’s allies maintain that unreleased laboratory tests show he was poisoned and killed in prison, a claim Moscow vehemently rejects.
