This is a new blow to the camp of Alexey Navalny.

The Russian justice ordered, Monday April 26, the suspension of the activities of the organizations related to the imprisoned opponent, which are threatened to be declared "extremists" and banned, indicated its collaborators.

"The activities of the offices of Navalny and the Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK) were immediately suspended," Ivan Zhdanov, director of the FBK, wrote on Twitter, accompanying his message with photographs of this decision taken by the prosecutor in the waiting for a trial which could permanently ban their activities.

"They are simply screaming: we are afraid of your activities, we are afraid of your demonstrations, we are afraid of your voting instructions," he added.

The Moscow office of Alexey Navalny for its part indicated on Telegram "no longer being able to work in the old format" because of this decision.

"It would be too dangerous for our employees and for our supporters", he said while promising that they "will continue, in a personal capacity, to fight against corruption", against the party in power, United Russia, and against President Vladimir Putin.

"It will not be easy to fight, but we will win absolutely, because there are many of us and we are strong," said the opponent's Moscow office.

"Destabilization"

The Russian prosecution asked in mid-April to qualify organizations linked to Alexeï Navalny as "extremists", which would ban them in Russia and would incur the collaborators and supporters of the opponent with heavy prison sentences.

The prosecution accuses these organizations of seeking to "create the conditions for the destabilization of the social and socio-political situation" in Russia, "under the guise of liberal slogans".

This request must be further examined by the courts, which held a first preliminary hearing in this case on Monday.

Anti-corruption activist and sworn enemy of the Kremlin, Alexeï Navalny is imprisoned in a penal colony for an old case of fraud that he denounces as a political one.

He ended a 24-day hunger strike on Friday to protest his poor conditions of detention, in the face of his worsening state of health.

With AFP

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