Russia Doesn't Revoke The Status Of The Late Terrorist In The Opposition Leader Navalny, Navalnaya: No One Forgets It

Condolences to Alexei Navalny. (Wikimedia Commons/Janne Ranta)

JAKARTA - Russia's financial watchdog has rejected requests to remove the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny from the "terrorists and extremists" list, even though he has died, Yulia Navalnaya's wife said Friday.

Navalnaya showed the letter dated December 16 from the supervisor, Rosfinmonitoring, which said her late husband was the subject of a criminal investigation related to money laundering and terrorism financing.

It said the supervisor had not been notified of any attempt to cancel the case, and therefore he was still on the list.

"(President of Russia Vladimir) Putin was afraid of Alexei even after he killed him," Navalnaya wrote on Telegram.

She said the purpose of continuing to label her husband as a terrorist and extremist, even after his death, was to intimidate Russians.

"Why does Putin need this? Obviously, it is not to prohibit Alexei from opening a bank account. This is no longer possible," he said.

"Putin does this to scare you. He wants you to be afraid even to call Alexei and slowly forget his name. However, no one will forget about him," he said.

Navalny died suddenly at the age of 47 in February in the Arctic penal colony, where he served more than 30 years on charges he rejected, in an attempt to silence his criticism of President Vladimir Putin.

Navalnaya blamed Putin for his death and has offered gifts to every witness who can provide evidence he was murdered. The Kremlin firmly rejected the allegations, and Russian investigators said he died of natural causes.

Rosfinmonitoring is authorized to freeze the bank accounts of people listed on the "terrorists and extremists" list. Among the thousands of people and groups listed on the list, there are Navalnaya himself and three lawyers of her late husband who will be sentenced next week on charges of being members of extremist groups.

Prosecutors said the lawyers used their access to Navalny to allow him to carry out subversive activities even after he was in prison.

Their supporters said they were punished for doing their job, and prosecution of lawyers had crossed Russia's new threshold of repression under President Putin.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin said it did not comment on individual court cases, but authorities have considered Navalny and his supporters as Western-backed traitors who are trying to destabilize the country.