The Investigative Committee brought a new charge against Alexei Navalny - in the creation of an organization that infringes upon the personality and rights of citizens.

This was announced by the official representative of the UK Svetlana Petrenko.

“The Investigative Committee of Russia continues to investigate a criminal case initiated on the basis of a crime under Part 2 of Art.

239 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, on the fact of the creation of a non-profit organization that infringes on the personality and rights of citizens.

Alexei Navalny has been charged with this crime, ”TASS quoted her as saying.

The representative of the department clarified that, according to the IC, the blogger created a non-profit organization that performs the functions of a foreign agent - the Anti-Corruption Foundation *, which the blogger has been running since 2011 together with Ivan Zhdanov, Leonid Volkov and other people.

According to the department, the activities of the fund were associated with encouraging people to commit illegal acts.

The investigation believes that Navalny, Volkov, Zhdanov and other persons involved in the activities of the fund disseminated messages on their personal Internet pages and on the pages of FBK * on behalf of the organization, calling for the participation of Russian citizens in uncoordinated rallies in January 2021.

“At the same time, Navalny was reliably aware in advance of the unlawful nature of the planned measures in connection with the existing restrictions and without the consent of the authorities of their implementation.

Navalny realized that for participation in uncoordinated rallies, administrative responsibility is provided, ”Petrenko explained, adding that all the circumstances of the case are now being established.

As RT was explained by a lawyer, head of the criminal practice of the legal center "Man and the Law" Dmitry Panfilov, liability under Part 2 of Art.

239 provides for punishment, including with real imprisonment.

“If Navalny's guilt is established legally and enters into force by a court decision, then, in addition to a fine, the oppositionist may face restriction of freedom for up to three years or forced labor for the same period.

And the maximum punishment is imprisonment for three years, ”Panfilov added.

He did not rule out that the criminal prosecution under this article may affect not only the blogger - the investigation may also be of interest to other activists who participated in the illegal activities of the organization.

“The complexity of the case will consist in identifying all the participants in the crime,” Panfilov said.

Recall that on the eve of the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against the former director of the FBK Ivan Zhdanov and the ex-head of the Navalny headquarters ** Leonid Volkov in connection with calls for financing extremist organizations.

This was announced by the official representative of the department Svetlana Petrenko.

The representative of the IC recalled that by a court decision, the Anti-Corruption Foundation and the Foundation for the Protection of Citizens' Rights (FZPG) *** were recognized as extremist and liquidated.

The extremist activities of the public movement "Navalny's Headquarters" were also banned.

As lawyer Ilya Remeslo explained to RT, the initiation of a case against Zhdanov and Volkov was predictable.

According to him, in the near future, it is expected that the criminal prosecution will also affect ordinary donors of the extremist organization.

“The crime is committed not only by Volkov and Zhdanov, who collect money.

Obviously, those people who donate were framed under a serious criminal offense.

These people will be searched for and brought to justice, ”the lawyer explained.

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In April, the Moscow prosecutor's office filed a lawsuit with the Moscow City Court to declare the Anti-Corruption Foundation, the Foundation for the Protection of Citizens' Rights and Navalny's headquarters extremist.

They explained that the actual goals of the organization are “to create conditions for changing the foundations of the constitutional order, including using the scenario of the“ color revolution ”.

At the same time, these structures on the territory of Russia carry out the work of foreign and international organizations, whose activities are recognized as undesirable, the department added.

On January 17, Alexei Navalny flew to Russia from Germany, where he was undergoing treatment, and was detained at the Sheremetyevo airport.

The FSIN said that the reason for the detention was Navalny's repeated violations of the probationary period assigned to him in the case of embezzlement of funds from the Yves Rocher company: until December 29, 2020, he had to appear twice a month for registration with the FSIN authorities, which he did not do. As a result, he was issued five warnings about the possibility of replacing the suspended sentence with a real one.

In this regard, on January 18, the Khimki City Court detained Navalny.

After that, the blogger himself and his supporters began to disseminate statements calling for illegal rallies in support of him, using for this, among other things, social networks popular among teenagers. 

On February 2, the Simonovsky District Court of Moscow ruled against Alexei Navalny to replace the suspended sentence with a real one in the Yves Rocher case.

The blogger was sentenced to 3.5 years in a general regime colony and a fine of 500 thousand rubles, while he was credited with the period of being under house arrest.

* The Anti-Corruption Foundation is included in the register of NPOs performing the functions of a foreign agent, by the decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation dated 09.10.2019;

the organization is recognized as extremist, its activities are prohibited on the territory of Russia by the decision of the Moscow City Court of 06/09/2021.

** "Navalny Headquarters" - the organization is recognized as extremist, its activities are prohibited on the territory of Russia by the decision of the Moscow City Court of 06/09/2021.

*** The Foundation for the Protection of Citizens' Rights was included in the register of NPOs performing the functions of a foreign agent, by decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation dated December 25, 2020. The organization is recognized as extremist, its activities are prohibited on the territory of Russia by the decision of the Moscow City Court of 06/09/2021.