Associates of Alexei Navalny said they were shutting down their nationwide network of regional offices on Thursday even as the imprisoned Russian opposition leader vowed, in an online court appearance, to keep fighting the "emperor with no clothes” in the Kremlin.
Disbanding Navalny’s 40 regional offices became inevitable in recent weeks, an aide to Navalny said, amid the Kremlin’s latest efforts to stifle political dissent. Prosecutors are seeking to have Navalny’s movement declared an extremist organization. A Moscow court this week ordered Navalny’s groups to halt all public activity pending a final ruling in the extremism case.
"Alas, we must be honest: It’s impossible to work under these conditions,” the aide to Navalny, Leonid Volkov, said in a YouTube video, warning that continuing to operate would expose supporters of the opposition leader to criminal prosecution. "We are officially disbanding the network of Navalny offices.”