Their bank accounts will now immediately be frozen
Leonid Volkov and Ivan Zhdanov, two close allies of the jailed Russian opposition activist Alexey Navalny, have been added to a state register of extremists. They were placed on an international wanted list last year.
The two men’s names were registered on the website of Rosfinmonitoring, Russia’s financial monitoring service, on Friday.
The agency compiles information on those suspected of terrorist or extremist activity. Under Russian law, the bank accounts of individuals on the list must be frozen immediately. Both men currently live abroad, having left the country last year when the authorities brought charges against a number of prominent Navalny associates, accusing them of organizing protests prohibited under Russia’s Covid-19 laws.
Volkov served as the chief of staff for the jailed opposition figure’s 2018 presidential campaign, then led an effort to boycott the vote after Navalny was barred from running due to a prior criminal conviction – a decision many criticized as politically motivated.
Zhdanov previously led the Anti-Corruption Foundation, launched by Navalny in 2011 with the stated intention of exposing corruption among high-ranking government officials. The Ministry of Justice declared the foundation a “foreign agent” in 2019, and, in June 2021, it was designated an extremist organization and liquidated. Last month, Zhdanov’s father, Yury, was given a suspended prison sentence in a corruption case that his son and other Navalny supporters have labelled as politically motivated.
Earlier this week, a judge ruled that he be sent to a detention center for violating restrictions imposed as part of his probation. Ivan Zhdanov has accused authorities of seeking revenge on him by prosecuting his father.