Russian authorities added several allies of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny to their federal register of “terrorists and extremists” on Friday, exactly six months after his death in prison.
Among those added to the list by Russia’s financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring are Kira Yarmysh, press secretary for Yulia Navalnaya and formerly her husband, and Maria Pevchik, chief investigator at Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation.
In a photo posted on her X account, in which she is seen posing with Yarmysh, Pevchikh mocked her inclusion on the list, writing: “Please include this photo in all messages where the threat of my and Kira’s terrorist activities is particularly obvious.”
Also on the list were Navalny’s former lawyers Alexander Fedulov and Olga Mikhailova, both of whom left Russia to avoid prosecution, as well as the host of Navalny’s YouTube channel Dmitry Nizovtsev and the channel’s producer Nina Volokhonskaya, both of whom also live in exile.
The register also includes three people who are currently imprisoned in Russia on “extremist” charges and alleged links to Navalny: the two journalists Antonina Favorskaya and Olga Komleva, and the activist Alexei Malyarevsky.
The new additions come after Navalny’s widow Yulia was herself placed on the government list in July and arrested in absentia for “participation in an extremist community.”
Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, now based in Lithuania, was classified as a “foreign agent” by the Russian government in 2019 and declared an extremist organization two years later. This makes it illegal for Navalny supporters to operate in Russia.
Friday marked six months since Navalny’s sudden death in an Arctic prison in February. His family and supporters laid flowers on his grave at Borisovskoye Cemetery in Moscow.
Navalnaya, who has vowed to continue her husband’s work, announced on Thursday that Russian investigators had refused to open a criminal case into his death. She insisted he died of “cardiac arrhythmia” caused by a “combination of diseases.” Navalnaya called the diagnosis “an act of mockery” and “a pathetic attempt” to cover up his murder.
