Russia's financial watchdog has rejected a request to remove late opposition leader Alexei Navalny from a list of "terrorists and extremists" despite him being dead, his widow said today, as quoted by Reuters.
It published a letter from the watchdog "Rosfinmonitoring" dated December 16, saying that Navalny was the subject of a criminal investigation for money laundering and terrorism financing. The letter states that the watchdog was not informed of any moves to end the investigation and that Navalny is therefore still on the list.
Navalny died suddenly at the age of 47 in February last year in an Arctic penal colony, where he was serving sentences totaling 30 years on a series of charges that he called attempts to silence his criticism of President Vladimir Putin.
Yulia Navalna blames Putin for her husband's death and is offering a reward for any witness who can provide evidence that he was murdered. The Kremlin strongly denies the accusation and Russian investigators say Navalny died of natural causes.
“Putin is afraid of Alexei even after he killed him“, Navalna wrote on “Telegram“. According to her, the purpose of keeping her husband on the list of terrorists and extremists even after his death is to intimidate Russians.
“Why does Putin need this? Obviously, it is not to prohibit Alexei from opening bank accounts. This is no longer possible“, she pointed out.“Putin is doing this to scare you. He wants you to be afraid to even mention Alexei and gradually forget his name. But no one will forget“, Navalna added.“Rosfinmonitoring“ has the authority to freeze the bank accounts of individuals on the list of “terrorists and extremists”, Reuters points out. Among the thousands of individuals and groups on the list are Navalna herself, as well as her late husband's three lawyers, who will receive sentences next week on charges of belonging to an extremist group.“