By The Moscow Times | Created at 2025-01-22 15:45:20 | Updated at 2025-01-22 19:15:32
3 hours ago
Russia’s state financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring added exiled politician Leonid Gozman to the country’s list of “terrorists and extremists.”
A Moscow court sentenced Gozman, 74, to eight and a half years in prison in absentia last year for criticizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He was added to the “terrorists and extremists” list alongside several others, including Azerbaijani journalist Rovshan Askerov, who fled Russia after controversial remarks about Soviet World War II General Georgy Zhukov.
Being added to Russia’s lists of “terrorists and extremists” allows the authorities to freeze designees’ bank accounts without a court order.
In December, Russian lawmakers passed legislation broadening the criteria for being included in the country’s “terrorists and extremists” list. The revised law now covers individuals accused of crimes motivated by political, religious, ideological, racial or national hatred.
Gozman fled Russia in September 2022 after being jailed for two consecutive 15-day terms in connection with his 2013 and 2020 blog posts that said the Soviet government was no better than the Nazi regime.
He used to head the Union of Right Forces, a small political party that included exiled former Putin adviser Anatoly Chubais and the late opposition figure Boris Nemtsov, who was killed outside the Kremlin in 2015. The Union of Right Forces dissolved itself in 2008.
Meanwhile, Gozman’s wife, Marina Yegorova, has been under house arrest since October on charges of trafficking cultural artifacts from Russia to Italy. If convicted, she could face up to seven years in prison.
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