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MOSCOW — Prosecutors in President Vladimir V. Putin’s government ordered an immediate halt on Monday to all public activities by Aleksei A. Navalny’s political groups, in one of the most sweeping legal moves against the Russian opposition in recent years.
The decision cripples the only remaining effective opposition to Mr. Putin’s increasingly authoritarian rule, and is expected to become a permanent ban under a court process underway now in Moscow.
The move is seen as part of an intensifying campaign by the government against Mr. Navalny, who survived an attempt on his life when Russian agents poisoned him, only to be thrown into jail on his recent return home.
Mr. Navalny’s movement is the most prominent in Russia openly calling for Mr. Putin’s removal through elections, and his supporters say the Kremlin is determined to crush that effort before it can yield fruit. The groups have persisted for years despite unrelenting pressure from the Russian authorities to push an anti-corruption drive that has frustrated and embarrassed Mr. Putin, often using social media to great effect.
But the order to halt activities, written by prosecutors in Moscow, would take away all the tools the groups have used to get their message out. It would prohibit Mr. Navalny’s nongovernmental organizations from posting information on the internet, calling for public protests or taking part in political campaigns.
The order said the activities were illegal because they were “extremist” in nature, although the evidence in the case has been classified. It is unclear when the court will rule on the plan, but judges in Russia rarely rule against prosecutors.
“This is just screaming, ‘We fear your activity, we fear your protests, we fear smart voting,’” Ivan Zhdanov, a top aide to Mr. Navalny, wrote on Twitter, referring to a voting strategy in which the opposition coalesces around the single strongest candidate in a given race.
Until now, Mr. Navalny has still been able to get his word out through his various organizations. Just days ago, he ended a hunger strike in prison after the authorities relented amid an international outcry and allowed independent doctors to examine him. His own personal doctors had feared what they called ill treatment in prison and the hunger strike could kill Mr. Navalny unless he received proper medical care.
Though overshadowed by the assassination attempt on Mr. Navalny last year and his imprisonment and recent hunger strike, the legal onslaught against his movement also carries potentially far-reaching implications. Mr. Putin’s system of governance is sometimes called a “soft authoritarian” approach because it allows open opposition and more internet freedoms than in China.
Other political parties exist in Russia that are ostensibly in the opposition, but in fact they back Mr. Putin and most of his policies while criticizing officials lower down the pecking order, such as regional governors. The order singled out Mr. Navalny’s nongovernmental groups — he has not been allowed to form a legal political party — for posing a risk to “the interests of the Russian Federation.”
The order, which was published online by Mr. Navalny’s aides, said the ban covering three of Mr. Navalny’s nongovernmental organizations could be appealed but would otherwise be in effect until a court ruling that might make it permanent.
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