Russia: President Vladimir Putin gives nod to laws barring 'extremists' from running polls

By signing a new law on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin banned individuals designated as "extremists" from running for public offices. This move has been condemned by the opposition recognising it as an effort to further limit political competition. Russia has banned people who have been involved in "extremism" and "terrorism" from running for public offices. June 6 also marks the birthday of jailed Kremlin vehement critic Alexei Navalny. 

CNN reported that the law prevents members of "extremist" or "terrorist" organisations from contesting elections for a period of three to five years, depending on the person's stature and position. While founders and leaders of designated groups will not be able to run for elected office for a term of five years after a court's decision to ban the group. Employees or financial supporters of court-ruled extremist and terrorist organisations will be banned from running an office for three years. 

Alexei Navalny's Chief of Staff Leonid Volkov took to Twitter to establish that he did not believe President Putin "accidentally" signed the law.

Alexei Navalny behind Russian prison system 

Navalny has been sentenced to over two years in prison in February 2021 by a court that said he violated the 2014 suspended term while in Germany for treatment. Navalny was arrested soon after returning from Germany on January 17, which prompted widespread protests across Russia demanding his release. The said court pronounced that he serve the remaining months of his suspended sentence in prison. Oscillating at the receiving end of this trial, protesters gathered in the streets of Moscow and over 1,000 people were detained by law enforcement authorities. 

According to media reports, he is 'the man Putin fears the most', and this is in a part of the world where autocratic leaders have had few qualms of dispatching their political rivals or anything they view as a threat to their rule.

New laws against anti-regime behaviour

The new legislation comes ahead of a court decision on whether to designate both Navalny's political and anti-corruption organisations as extremist groups following a lawsuit filed in April by the Moscow Prosecutor's office. Critics have stated the new laws as a threat not only to opposition politicians but to ordinary Russian citizens too. 

A political analyst of Carnegie Moscow, Tatiana Stanovaya said, "The battlefield has become much larger, now even a Russian citizen who participates in protests, retweets an opposition post or donates to opposition groups, face the risk of prosecution."

Recently signed laws do hint at possibilities that Navalny supporters would be barred from running in Russia's upcoming parliamentary elections in September. He was already barred from contesting presidential elections in 2018. The next Russian presidential elections is scheduled for 2024.