National Bolsheviks denounced the move as part of a government crackdown on the group.
Photo: Dmitry Dukhanin
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National Bolsheviks Now Twice-Banned
Moscow prosecutors on Thursday ordered the unregistered National Bolshevik Party to suspend its activities as an extremist organization. The movement’s leader Eduard Limonov says the move is timed to the upcoming March of the Discontented protest rallies in three Russian cities. Party members now risk being sent to prison for four years if they decide to take to the streets.
The group was engaged in activities that violate Russia’s anti-extremism laws, the Moscow City Prosecutor’s Officer said in statement on its official web-site on Thursday. National Bolsheviks are now barred from staging rallies, demonstrations, or any other public gatherings.
Moscow prosecutors noted that National Bolshevik Party was closed down as a nonprofit organization back in 2005. The group, however, continued its activities, the prosecutors say.
On Wednesday, the Moscow City Court received a suit from the prosecutors asking to deem National Bolshevik Party an extremist organization and ban its activities. Eduard Limonov, National Bolshevik leader, has already received summons to appear in court on March 29.
National Bolsheviks denounced the move as part of a government crackdown on the group. Eduard Limonov’s organization was one of the most active in the March of the Discontented which drew five thousand protesters in St. Petersburg in earlier this month.
Should National Bolshevist members appear at any upcoming March of the Discontented in Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow or St. Petersburg in mid-April, the banned group’s leaders will face four years in prison for extremism.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 23, 2007
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