Watchdog

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- The former leader of jailed Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny's team in St. Petersburg says she has been ordered to pay 3.9 million rubles ($53,400) to police to compensate city law enforcement for costs related to the dispersal of unsanctioned rallies against Navalny’s arrest in January 2021.

Irina Fatyanova wrote on Telegram that a court in St. Petersburg pronounced the ruling on April 29.

In April 2021, Fatyanova was sentenced to 10 days in jail after a court found her guilty of organizing the pro-Navalny rallies on January 23 and January 31 that same year.

In July, the election commission in St. Petersburg barred Fatyanova from taking part in elections in September because of her ties to Navalny.

In June, a Moscow City Court ruled in favor of a prosecutor's motion to declare Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and other groups related to the opposition politician as "extremist."

The move has prevented those associated with Navalny and his network of regional branches across Russia from seeking public office. It also carries possible lengthy prison terms for activists who have worked with the organizations, a move seen by critics as a thinly veiled attempt to scare off potential opposition candidates.

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5 Things To Know About Russian Opposition Leader Aleksei Navalny

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Navalny, 45, was arrested in January 2021 upon his arrival from Germany where he was treated for poisoning with what was defined by European labs as a nerve agent in August last year. He has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering the poisoning, which the Kremlin has denied.

A Moscow court in February converted a 3 1/2-year suspended sentence on a charge that Navalny and his supporters call politically motivated to real jail time saying he broke the terms of the original sentence by leaving Russia for Germany for the life-saving treatment he received. The court reduced the time Navalny must spend in prison to just over 2 1/2 years because of time already served in detention.

Last month, a court sentenced Navalny to nine years in prison after finding him guilty of embezzlement and contempt charges, which Navalny and his supporters also rejected as politically motivated.

DUSHANBE -- A leader of Tajik migrants in Russia, Amriddin Alovatshoev, who was extradited to Tajikistan earlier this year, has gone on trial in Dushanbe on charges of hostage taking, illegal depriving others of their freedom, and "other crimes" that his relatives call trumped-up.

The trial, chaired by a judge from the 44-year-old youth leader's native region of Gorno-Badakhshan, started in the Tajik capital on April 29.

Alovatshoev went incommunicado on January 11 and media reports said that he was detained in the Russian city of Belgorod at the Tajik government’s request.

In early February, Tajik authorities said Alovatshoev was extradited to Dushanbe. The developments around the activist coincided with Tajik prosecutors' decision to launch a new probe into four days of demonstrations in the Gorno-Badakhshan region that killed three people and injured at least 17 others in November 2021.

On February 12, Tajik state-controlled television broadcast a video of Alovatshoev "confessing" to unspecified crimes. His supporters have insisted that he was under duress when the video was recorded.

The protests in the restive province's capital, Khorugh, broke out on November 25 after security forces fatally wounded a local man wanted on charges of kidnapping. The demonstrators demanded a probe into his death.

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Tajikistan's Pressure On 'Informal Leaders' Of Gorno-Badakhshan Angers Locals In Restive Region

The rally turned violent when protesters tried to seize the local government building, prompting security forces to open fire on the crowd, eyewitnesses said.

On the same day, a group of people from Gorno-Badakhshan staged protests in front of the Tajik Embassy in Moscow with the same demands as the demonstrators in Khorugh. Alovatshoev was said to be at that rally.

During a government meeting in Khorugh on January 10, one official accused Alovatshoev of inciting anti-government sentiment among young people in Gorno-Badakhshan "from abroad."

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Whereabouts Unknown: Tajik Government Critics Face Pressure, Forced Disappearances In Russia

At least 15 Tajik anti-government activists and opposition supporters have disappeared in Russia since 2015, human rights defenders say.

Some of them have reappeared in Tajikistan -- often in police custody, facing dubious charges ranging from fraud to extremism. The whereabouts of others remain unknown.