The Russian government on Wednesday moved to defang efforts to stage anti-government rallies this weekend by blacklisting the coordinator, Open Russia, an organization founded by Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Although the main organization is based in Britain, Russia’s prosecutor-general labeled it “undesirable,” effectively making it illegal for the body to operate inside Russia.
It cited the protest efforts as the main reason.
Two other groups linked to Khodorkovsky were included in the ban. One, the Institute of Modern Russia, is run from the US by Khodorkovsky’s son, Pavel, and the other, Open Russia Civic Movement, has headquarters in Britain.
“Their activities are aimed at inspiring protests and destabilizing the internal political situation, which threatens the foundations of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation, and the security of the state,” the prosecutor-general said in a statement.
It was not clear what effect the attempt to pre-empt the protests would have.
Open Russia within the country declared that it was independent of the British headquarters and not covered by the ban, and therefore would proceed with attempts to mobilize anti-government marches in about 30 cities tomorrow.
A statement distributed on Twitter by the Khodorkovsky Center quoted Khodorkovsky as telling the independent television station Rain that the domestic organization “exists separately and will continue to operate.”
In the statement, Khodorkovsky, a former chairman of the Yukos oil giant who spent several years in prison before being pardoned by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2013, said that the ban would backfire.
“I think that such a terrified reaction from the government will only motivate more people to come out into the streets and tell those in power that if they cannot run the country properly, and solve the issues that face Russian society, then they should leave,” he said.
The Kremlin was taken by surprise on March 26 when thousands of Russians in about 80 cities, many of them young people, responded to a call by opposition leader Alexei Navalny to protest against widespread government corruption.
Open Russia, which had been weighing how to support opposition candidates, said that it would try to work more closely with Navalny.
Navalny, although jailed for 15 days after the protests, has continued his anti-government drumbeat.
In a video released on Tuesday, he made new accusations against Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, saying that four organizations, falsely labeled charities, last year spent US$66 million to maintain various estates used by Medvedev.
An earlier Navalny video, accusing Medvedev of amassing estates, vineyards and yachts through corrupt charities and shell companies, helped inspire last month’s rallies.
Before the ban was announced on Wednesday, Open Russia provoked some dismay among opposition groups by posting on Twitter a picture of the naked torso of a woman with each breast covered only by a strip of yellow tape printed with the Russian word nadoel, or “tired,” meaning of the government.
The caption on the post read: “Waiting for you on 29.04.”
The Twitter message pushing for the demonstrations was denounced in opposition circles as being overtly “sexist.”
Khodorkovsky, 53, once Russia’s richest oligarch, was arrested in 2003 and convicted on charges of fraud, embezzlement and money laundering. Since his pardon, he has lived abroad, becoming one of the Kremlin’s most outspoken critics.
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