Russia adds opposition leader Alexei Navalny to terrorist list

Russia's Federal Financial Monitoring Service added Navalny to the list roughly a year after he was sentenced to serve about 2.5 years in prison for violating parole.

• He was charged with violating his parole for staying in Germany while he recovered from the attempted poisoning by Russian security forces in 2020.
• Navalny and Western nations have condemned the charge and his prison sentence as being politically motivated.

A Russian court labeled Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, a group created to expose corruption within the Kremlin, "extremist" in June, meaning that anyone associated with the group could face prison sentences of up to 10 years.

• A new criminal case was opened against Navalny in September, and he stands accused of founding and leading an extremist group. If convicted, he could have a decade added to his prison sentence.

The big picture: In a major blow to the country's civil society, a Russian court ordered two prominent human rights groups to shut down in December after they were charged with violating Russia's "foreign agent" law and "justifying terrorism and extremism."

• The Russian government has repeatedly used foreign agent and terrorist designations to suppress opposition figures, activists, journalists and human rights lawyers.

Go deeper: Navalny aides vow to keep up the fight from exile