Moscow prosecutors open case against Navalny's anti-corruption group, investigating ethnic hatred incitement

The Moscow district attorney has opened an investigation into Alexey Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK). In a letter addressed to Roman Rubanov, the foundation's director, Deputy Prosecutor Boris Markov ordered the group to provide all records about FBK's sources of funding (including grants), expenditures, and money account flows in the past three years.

Navalny's group is also being ordered to produce copies of everything FBK published in the media (including online) between January 1, 2013, and April 1, 2016. The prosecutor's letter singles out an article that appeared in the Washington Post on March 7, 2016, titled “Are Russia's 20 Million Muslims Seething About Putin Bombing Syria?” (This article reported the results of a sociological survey conducted by FBK measuring attitudes in the predominantly Muslim republics of Dagestan and Tatarstan about Russia's Syria airstrikes.)

Rubanov was ordered to appear at the district attorney's office to hand over the documents in two days, on April 8.

In mid-March, the head of the All-Russian Interethnic Youth Union appealed to Russia's Attorney General and Justice Ministry, asking officials to blacklist the Anti-Corruption Foundation as a “foreign agent,” and investigate Navalny personally for inciting ethnic and religious hatred.