New Law Allows Moscow to Shutter Any Group in Which There is Even a Single Extremist

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 24 – Vladimir Putin has signed into law a measure that will allow the Russian authorities to list any public organization as extremist and then likely move to close it if the authorities determine that even one member of the group has been convicted on charges of being an extremist.

            Given the expansive nature of extremism charges in Russia today and the likelihood that the Russian authorities may use this new law ex post facto, insisting that someone who had been convicted of extremism was at some point a member, this opens the way to the closing down of all groups the Kremlin doesn’t like.

            Although the measure has not attracted a great deal of attention, human rights experts warn that it opens the way to far more repression than the Kremlin has used up to now (echofm.online/news/vladimir-putin-podpisal-zakon-kotoryj-pozvolyaet-obyavit-ekstremistskim-soobshhestvom-lyubuyu-gruppu-lyudej-esli-v-nej-najdyotsya-hotya-by-odin-ekstremist).

            At the very least, this measure will have a chilling effect on all organizations in the Russian Federation as they will have to work to ensure that there are no "extremists" planted in their membership rolls as a prelude to actions by Russian officials against them.