Watchdog

Russia's top prosecutor has blacklisted a nongovernmental organization set up by former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a move that puts the group in potential legal jeopardy just days before planned street protests.

An April 26 statement from the Russian Prosecutor-General's Office declared Open Russia to be an "undesirable organization" and said that it was registered in the United Kingdom.

The prosecutor's office also attached the "undesirable" label to the Open Russia Civic Movement, which it said was also registered in Britain, and to the U.S.-based Institute for Modern Russia, which is run by Khodorkovsky's son, Pavel.

Open Russia responded quickly to the announcement, saying that the movement in Russia was "purely a Russian organization" and therefore cannot be deemed an "undesirable organization" under Russian law.

"The decision only concerns foreign legal bodies. The Russian Open Russia movement exists separately and will continue to operate," a statement on Khodorkovsky's website quoted him as telling Russian channel Dozhd (Rain) TV.

Later on April 26, Russian news agency RBC quoted Prosecutor-General's Office spokesman Aleksandr Kurennoi as saying that the "undesirable" designation for Open Russia "concerns only the [groups] based in Britain."

But there was no official clarification from the Prosecutor-General's Office, whose statement accused all three organizations conducting antigovernment activity inside Russia.

"The organizations listed have undertaken special programs and projects on the territory of the Russian Federation with the goal of discrediting the results of recent elections, declaring them to be illegitimate," the statement said.

"Their activities are aimed at inspiring protest actions and destabilizing the domestic political situation, presenting a threat to the constitutional foundation of the Russian Federation and the security of the state," it said.

The human rights group Amnesty International said that by labeling Open Russia "undesirable," the authorities were laying the groundwork to completely ban the nongovernmental group from Russia.

The relevant legislation, signed in 2015 by President Vladimir Putin, gives prosecutors the power to declare foreign-registered organizations as "undesirable" and shut them down if they are deemed to be a threat to Russia's national interests.

'Foreign Agent' Law

That measure followed up a related law from 2012 requiring nongovernmental organizations that receive funding from foreign sources and engage in political activity within Russia to declare themselves as "foreign agents."

The 2012 legislation, known as the "foreign agent" law, also allows the closure of such nongovernmental organizations if the Justice Ministry deems that their activity is harmful to Russia's national interests.

Both measures were loudly criticized by Western governments, and by many of the Russian nongovernment groups that rely wholly or in part on financing from foreign public and private sources.

The blacklisting of Open Russia came just three days before an April 29 street protest the group has been planning -- an effort aimed, in part, at building momentum on nationwide demonstrations spearheaded in March by anticorruption crusader and opposition politician Aleksei Navalny.

Those anticorruption demonstrations -- the largest street protests in Russia since Putin returned to the presidency in 2012 -- appear to have rattled the Kremlin.

Amnesty International condemned the Russian prosecutor's designation of Open Russia on April 26, saying the move was "just the latest in a long-standing crackdown on civil society."

"These aren't the first organizations banned in Russia as 'undesirable,' but it's the first time the authorities ban a civil-society group that was founded by Russians and operates only in Russia," said Sergei Nikitin, the director of Amnesty International Russia.

"Open Russia has done a lot to support victims of human rights violations in Russia and denounced Russia's deplorable human rights record, and now itself has fallen victim to the system," Nikitin said.

'Family Of Gangsters'

Nikitin concluded that the Russian authorities intend to ban Open Russia in order to put an end to its human rights activities, its support for independent political candidates, and its media work.

Khodorkovsky, once Russia's wealthiest businessman, built up Russia's largest oil company before he was thrown in prison on charges his supporters say were trumped up, and the company's assets were stripped away by the Russian state.

Following his release from a Russian prison in 2013, Khodorkovsky became an exile in the United Kingdom -- where he has gradually been building up Open Russia's profile and positioning it as a leading opposition force in Russia.

In a series of posts to Twitter on April 26, Khodorkovsky mocked the Russian prosecutor's announcement and said he was proud of the designation.

"Was there ever any doubt?" he wrote in another post that accused Russian authorities of being criminals. "A family of gangsters covering for other gangsters."

With reporting by Current Time TV, RBK, and Dozhd

MOSCOW -- Quaintly decked out in their finest, some in bow ties and the older among them grasping canes, the Jehovah's Witnesses slowly trickle in to a modest temple in northwest Moscow for their first service as "extremists."

Just two days earlier, on April 20, the Supreme Court had declared the Christian denomination an extremist organization and ordered its property in Russia seized, effectively banning Jehovah's Witnesses from the country once the ruling enters force.

Nevertheless, on this day services continue as normal at Moscow's Kingdom Hall -- albeit with ramped-up security measures. Referring to legal provisions that enshrine the right to "freely choose, possess, and disseminate religious and other views," the minister tells the congregation to loud applause that "Article 28 of Russia's constitution still allows us to continue worshipping Jehovah and sharing our personal convictions with others."

Seated in rows, the flock sings and reads from smartphones and tablets instead of hymnals or service bulletins; shipments of Bibles used by Jehovah's Witnesses have been intercepted at the Russian border by customs since 2015. In any case, organizers do not hand out literature so as not to violate tightening laws against missionizing.

Worshippers such as Yevgeny Kondautov, 45, say these closed-door meetings remain legal because the ruling has not yet entered into full force and the appeals process is under way. But he said the community is on edge and that the ruling has sent a message to society and police that members of his community are extremists.

He says that a day earlier assailants threw stones at their headquarters in St. Petersburg, smashing windows.

"We called the police, but they didn't come," Kondautov says. "They think, 'They're extremists, so that's what they have coming to them.'"

He also believes that police could burst through the door at any moment. Several Kingdom Halls across the country have reportedly been raided in recent months. On April 14, for example, state TV showed armed National Guardsmen in combat gear storming a Kingdom Hall in Chelyabinsk:

"The congregation expects difficulties of some kind. Unfortunately, we have a lot of experience in this," says Kondautov, whose grandfather-in-law, a Jehovah's Witness, was sent to the labor camps under Josef Stalin for proselytizing.

The Jehovah's Witnesses had a small -- and persecuted -- following in the Soviet Union. After their activities were legalized after the Soviet breakup, its number of active members rose to more than 170,000.

The Kingdom Hall attended by Kondautov is the biggest in Moscow and has been rented by Jehovah's Witnesses for about 20 years. It has five different halls shared by worshippers divided into congregations by Moscow region. There are also services conducted in foreign languages and one in sign language for a small deaf congregation.

After the incident in St. Petersburg, Kondautov says, they have stopped using their main hall because it is on the ground floor and they fear stones could be thrown at the windows.

Other security precautions have long since become routine. Every time they open up the hall, worshippers conduct a sweep of the premises to make sure no extremist literature has been planted. They allege that law enforcement officers plant banned books in order to "find" them during raids, establishing a pretext for the group to be banned.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses have long been viewed with suspicion in Russia for their positions on military service, voting, and government authority in general. They are often portrayed on state TV as a pernicious sect linked to the United States that destroys families and threatens lives through their stance on blood transfusions.

The extremism lawsuit sought to ban the Jehovah's Witnesses' head administrative center on the grounds that its local branches had been caught with extremist literature. The Jehovah's Witnesses contended in court that these items had been planted and that they had also taken measures to stop extremist literature from being brought onto their premises.

Mikhail Vanichev, 43, a salesman for a legal company, worries that the Kingdom Hall in Moscow could be seized by authorities.

"We hope that won't happen," he says, noting that the building is not their property and thus cannot technically be confiscated in line with the court ruling. "This building does not belong to the Administrative Center [of the Jehovah's Witnesses]. But we don't know what could happen."

Vanichev explains that, in theory, the landlord could come under pressure to stop renting the property.

"There have been cases when we were renting a building and have made an advance payment and signed a contract, and pressure was put on the landlord and he has pulled out," he says.

Worshippers said they were shocked by the ruling and have placed their hopes on appeals.

"Of course, I'm worried about my life," says Sofia Nasonova, 24. "I've never done anything bad to anyone. I was a good girl at school. I was an honor student. The idea of me breaking the law is really surprising to me, that they want to ban us."

Her husband, 44-year-old Aleksei Nasonov, says: "We're going to hope that justice will triumph. We aren't breaking any laws. The law of freedom of conscience allows us to proselytize."

The situation is unpleasant, says Nasonov, who does renovation work and describes himself as a former alcoholic, but not unexpected.

"As it is said in the Holy Scriptures, Jesus was persecuted and his followers will be persecuted," Nasonov says. "So, in principle, we were prepared for this. It's unfortunate that this has happened."

After the service, the next congregation was soon assembling outside Hall No. 4. A smartly dressed elderly woman approaches Kondaudov and Vanichev talking outside.

"Sorry to interrupt. I've been following the news and I got a bit scared. How are we supposed to act now? It's not nice," she says.

"The only thing left is to smile, so as not to cry," Kondautov replies, laughing softly.

"Ah, I get it," she says. "And to open our arms in bewilderment."

"Yes, that will do as well," Kondautov concludes.