Watchdog

The team of jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny says it will resume operations across Russia despite being banned as "extremist" last year, after which many of the Kremlin critic's associates and supporters fled the country.

Navalny associates Leonid Volkov and Ivan Zhdanov said in a statement posted on YouTube on October 4 that after more than seven months of President Vladimir Putin's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, the regime had "weakened" and it is time for a new network to operate like an "underground guerilla group."

In recent months, many of Navalny's associates and members of his teams across Russia fled the country fearing for their safety amid a broad crackdown on political and civil dissent in Russia.

Zhdanov said in the video that the "safety of the group's members is a priority" and that a system has been set up to ensure the anonymity of any data transmitted through the group.

Volkov added that former members of Navalny's networks will only be considered part of the new organizations if they choose to join. He also called on the coordinators of groups currently protesting Russia's war in Ukraine to contact Navalny's team operating abroad.

Navalny, who suffered a near-fatal poisoning in August 2020 that he blames on Russian security operatives acting at the behest of President Vladimir Putin, has been in prison since February 2021. His Anti-Corruption Foundation and his network of regional offices also have been designated "extremist" organizations.

The anti-corruption campaigner was handed a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for violating the terms of an earlier parole during of his convalescence abroad. The original conviction is widely regarded as trumped-up and politically motivated.

The Kremlin has denied any involvement in Navalny's poisoning.

DUSHANBE -- Noted Tajik journalist Abdullo Ghurbati has been sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison on charges he and his supporters have called unfounded.

The Dushanbe-based Independent Center to Defend Human Rights, which provided Ghurbati with a lawyer, told RFE/RL that the verdict and sentence were pronounced on October 4 at a trial held behind closed doors on the premises of a detention center in the Tajik capital.

The court found Ghurbati guilty of publicly insulting an authority, minor assault of an authority, and participating in the activities of an extremist group.

The latter charge, the most serious, was linked to Ghurbati's business relations with Tajik businessman Idibek Latipov, who has been living and working in Egypt since 2007.

Investigators say Ghurbati received money from Latipov for making a YouTube video advertising his company, while Latipov was included on the Tajik National Bank's registry of individuals involved in "terrorist or extremist activities."

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Tajik Journalist Ghurbati Goes On Trial On Charges He Calls 'Unfounded'

Ghurbati has insisted that he was not aware that Latipov was on the registry and that his ties with the man were purely business-related.

Latipov told RFE/RL by phone that his inclusion on the National Bank's registry was groundless.

Prosecutors sought eight years in prison for the journalist. Ghurbati's lawyer, Abdurahmon Sharipov, told RFE/RL that his client had continued to insist that he was not guilty during the trial.

Ghurbati and blogger Daleri Imomali, known for articles critical of the government, were detained on June 15 and subsequently sent to pretrial detention for two months.

Imomali was charged with illegal entrepreneurship and premeditated false denunciation. His trial is pending.

In June, Human Rights Watch demanded that Tajik officials immediately release Ghurbati and Imomali, saying that the two men "are being targeted for their professional activities, despite being protected by Tajikistan's laws and international obligations on freedom of expression and media freedom."

Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has been criticized by international human rights groups for years over his disregard for independent media, religious freedoms, civil society, and political pluralism in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic.