Kremlin-critic Alexei Navalny launches new anti-corruption fund

Jailed Kremlin-critic Alexei Navalny on Monday (July 11) launched an international anti-corruption organisation. The Russian opposition leader has taken the step a year after his Russian Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF) was outlawed as extremist. Navalny sends messages on his Telegram channel. The messages are carried from him by his lawyers who are allowed to contact him in the jail. The Telegram channel said that fund's advisory board would include former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt, political scientist Francis Fukuyama, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and historian Anne Applebaum, and Navalny's wife, Yulia Navalnaya.

Alexei Navalny, a long-time critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin had cataloged wealth of senior Russian officials using his foundation. He had made a series ofcaustic and widely watched videos

Last year, court ruling outlawed Navalny's older Foundation and in effect prohibitted his allies from running in elections. The ruling also gave authorities power to jail ACF acitivists and freeze their bank accounts.

On Monday, Navalny's social media feed said that his new foundation (Anti-Corruption Foundation International) will be "completely transparent and understandable". It was said that first funds for the foundation would come from 50,000 euro Sakharov Prize that Navalny received from European Parliamentlast year.

"As always, we are counting on your help and support, and we promise that we will work well," Navalny was quoted as saying.

In 2020, Navalny was jailed for violating bail conditions. At that time, he had returned from Germany, He was recovering from near-fatal poisoning with a Soviet-era toxin. He was allegedly poisoned when in Russia.

He was handed a fresh nine-year sentence this year for fraud and contempt of court. He maintains that the charges against him were fabricated.

(With inputs from agencies)

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