MOSCOW: Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said on Monday that a prison commission had designated him an extremist and a terrorist, but officially no longer regarded him as a flight risk.
Navalny said on Instagram that he had been summoned before a commission which voted unanimously in favor of the change of status.
The designation marks a further escalation of official pressure against President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent domestic critic, currently serving two-and-a-half years in prison for parole violations he says were trumped up to thwart his political ambitions.
Navalny made light of the announcement, saying that he welcomed the fact he was no longer designated as prone to escape and so would be subjected to less frequent and stringent night time checks by guards.
“It’s just that there is now a sign over my bunk that I am a terrorist,” said Navalny in the post, which was published with the help of his lawyers.
There was no immediate confirmation from Russian authorities of the change in Navalny’s status, and the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Navalny, 45, was jailed after returning to Russia at the start of this year from Germany, where he underwent months of treatment to recover from being poisoned with a rare nerve agent in Siberia in August 2020.
The Kremlin denied any involvement in poisoning him and has repeatedly said that his treatment is a matter for the prison service. Putin takes pains to avoid even mentioning his name.
Navalny’s movement suffered a new blow in June when a court ruled its activities to be extremist. Many of his allies have had their homes raided or their freedom of movement restricted, and some have fled abroad. Last month Russia opened a new criminal case against Navalny that could keep him in jail for a further decade.
Some of his supporters have criticized last week’s award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, saying Navalny would have been a more deserving recipient.
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny says his prison has designated him a terrorist
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Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny says his prison has designated him a terrorist
- No immediate confirmation from Russian authorities of the change in Navalny’s status
French minister pledges tight security at rally for killed activist
- Deranque’s death has fomented tensions ahead of municipal elections next month and presidential polls next year
- Macron has said there was no place in France “for movements that adopt and legitimize violence“
LYON: French police will be out in force at a weekend rally for a slain far-right activist, the interior minister said Friday, as the country seeks to contain anger over the fatal beating blamed on the hard left.
Quentin Deranque, 23, died from head injuries after being attacked by at least six people on the sidelines of a protest against a politician from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party in the southeastern city of Lyon last week.
His death has fomented tensions ahead of municipal elections next month and presidential polls next year, in which the far-right National Rally (RN) party is seen as having its best chance yet at winning the top job.
President Emmanuel Macron, who is serving his last year in office, has said there was no place in France “for movements that adopt and legitimize violence,” and urged the far right and hard left to clean up their act.
Deranque’s supporters have called for a march in his memory on Saturday in Lyon.
The Greens mayor of Lyon asked the state to ban it, but Interior Minister Laurent Nunez declined to do so.
Nunez said he had planned an “extremely large police deployment” with reinforcements from outside the city to ensure security at the rally expected to be attended by 2,000 to 3,000 people, and likely to see counter-protesters from the hard left show up.
“I can only ban a demonstration when there are major risks of public disorder and I am not in a position to contain them,” he told the RTL broadcaster.
“My role is to strike a balance between maintaining public order and freedom of expression.”
- ‘Fascist demonstration’ -
Jordan Bardella, the president of anti-immigration RN, has urged party members not to go.
“We ask you, except in very specific and strictly supervised local situations (a tribute organized by a municipality, for example), not to attend these gatherings nor to associate the National Rally with them,” he wrote in a message sent to party officials and seen by AFP.
LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard backed the mayor’s call for a ban, warning on X it would be a “fascist demonstration” that “over 1,000 neo-Nazis from all over Europe” were expected to attend.
Two people, aged 20 and 25, have been charged with intentional homicide in relation to the fatal beating, according to the Lyon prosecutor and their lawyers.
A third suspect has been charged with complicity in the killing.
Jacques-Elie Favrot, a 25-year-old former parliamentary assistant to LFI lawmaker Raphael Arnault, has admitted to having been present at the scene but denied delivering the blows that killed Deranque, his attorney said.
Favrot said “it was absolutely not an ambush, but a clash with a group of far-right activists,” he added.
Italy’s hard-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday said the killing of Deranque was “a wound for all of Europe.”
Referring to her comments, Macron said everyone should “stay in their own lane,” but Meloni later said that Macron had misinterpreted her comments.
Opinion polls put the far right in the lead for the presidency in 2027, when Macron will have to step down after the maximum two consecutive terms in office.
