Alexey Navalny sues Russian Attorney General’s Office and federal censor over decision to block his website

Imprisoned opposition politician Alexey Navalny filed a lawsuit against the Russian Attorney General’s Office and the federal censor (Roskomnadzor), according to a case listing on the website of Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court.

Navalny’s lawyer, Vyascheslav Gimadi, told Mediazona that the lawsuit challenges the Russian authorities’ decision to block Navalny’s website and other online resources linked to his associates. 

The lawsuit was first reported by the Telegram channel Mozhem Obyasnit (“We Can Explain”). Navalny filed the lawsuit on September 11 and it was registered by the court on September 13. On the Tverskoy District Court’s website, it’s categorized as a “case on challenging the decisions, actions (inactions) of state bodies, bodies of military administration.”

In July, Russia’s federal censor blocked Navalny’s website and more than 40 other sites linked to his outlawed Anti-Corruption Foundation (the FBK). The agency claimed that these “Internet resources are used for the promotion and continuation of prohibited extremist activities.”

In August, at the request of the Attorney General’s Office, Roskomnadzor started blocking Navalny’s mobile app, which includes a function for his team’s “Smart Vote” initiative. The censorship agency blocked the “Smart Vote” website in September.