Purged Navalny supporters could face ban from standing in elections
A GROUP of Russian politicians has introduced a bill that could ban anyone who has worked for Alexei Navalny or even made a donation to his foundation from running for parliament.
The move, described by one critic as “genuine fascism”, follows a sweeping Kremlin crackdown against Mr Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition politician, and his allies ahead of national elections in September.
Prosecutors last month asked a Russian court to designate Mr Navalny’s Anti-corruption Foundation as an extremist organisation, potentially exposing 200 employees and thousands of donors to stiff fines and prison sentences. The court has yet to rule on that but a separate injunction has already suspended the foundation’s activities.
The new bill would bar anyone who worked for an extremist organisation from standing for parliament for five years, or three years for fund donors. It specifically mentions running for parliament rather than public office in general and it would apply retrospectively to anyone affiliated with Mr Navalny prior to the extremism designation.
Leonid Volkov, who ran the Mr Navalny’s regional network until it was shut down last week, estimated more than 200,000 Russians could be caught up in the purge which, he said, was “overt, retrospective disfranchisement ... genuine fascism”. Mr Volkov tweeted. “You can see fear in every line [of this bill].”
President Vladimir Putin’s ruling United Russia party is expected to win comfortably in September but last month his approval ratings fell to an eight-year low and some United Russia candidates even ran as independents at the local elections in Moscow in 2019.