Will Moscow declare the Anti-Corruption Fund to be terrorist?

The Anti-Corruption Fund (Фонд борьбы с коррупцией) was founded in 2011 by Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny. The FBK's main activity was to use investigative work to expose bribery systems at various levels of government administration – since its inception, it has uncovered around 150 cases.

While the fund's staff could initially be counted on one hand, their numbers have grown steadily and today, according to the fund, there are more than 135 employees and thousands of volunteers and supporters. The number of views of FBK videos is approaching one billion.

The fund's most important projects include three investigative reports, which were also published in the form of films, among other things. The first was a documentary about then-Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and his alleged multi-level bribery system.

The second was the film Putin's Palace: The Story of the Biggest Bribe about a magnificent property on the Black Sea that Putin allegedly owns through straw men. The film became the most-watched video on YouTube Russia in 2021.

The third film was called “The Whole Truth About Navalny's Poisoning” and was shot during Navalny's recovery stay in Germany after he was poisoned with Novichok on board a domestic flight in Russia. This film was followed by several others.

The noose tightens

In 2019, the Russian Ministry of Justice classified the FBK as a “foreign agent,” and in 2021, the Moscow City Court decided to add the organization to the list of extremist organizations. In 2025, the book “Patriot,” which Navalny wrote in prison and was published posthumously, will also be classified as extremist.

After being classified as an extremist organization, the FBK was dissolved by a Russian court. One month after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Navalny announced in court that the International FBK (Anti-Corruption Foundation International) would be established. His colleagues founded it in the US in December 2022, and its office is located in Lithuania.

On October 22 this year, the Russian Supreme Court accepted the lawsuit filed by the Prosecutor General's Office and will decide on November 27 whether to classify the FBK as a terrorist organization.

According to the prosecutor's office, the FBK is attempting to create “conditions for the destabilization of the social and socio-political situation” in Russia, with its ultimate goal being to create conditions for a change in the foundations of the constitutional order, including the implementation of a “color revolution” scenario.

It should be added that a Russian arrest warrant was already issued in absentia in 2023 against the head of the FBK's investigative department, Maria Pevchich. The organization's director of political projects, Leonid Volkov, was sentenced in absentia to 18 years in prison in June of this year.

And the director of the FBK as a whole, Vladislav Romancov, was added to Russia's list of terrorists and extremists on September 25.

Status as terrorists

FBK representatives wrote on their website that Putin was the number one terrorist and that they had no doubt that they would be classified as terrorists by the court. “The status of ‘terrorist’ in Russia means that we can now be destroyed,” they said, assessing the practical implications of a possible positive court ruling.

In addition, some FBK representatives have already been subjected to physical attacks outside Russia. Apart from the threat of death—which Moscow considers legal and legitimate—if classified as terrorists, the fund's representatives face the prospect of their activities in the EU being hampered, where, according to the organization, some states take such serious decisions by Russian institutions into account.

In the past, information from the FBK about who supported it has been leaked on several occasions, leading Russian exile media to assume that the Russian security forces have a complete list of people who have ever donated any amount to the fund's operations.

If the organization is classified as terrorist, thousands of Russian citizens face various penalties, even though they are retroactively “guilty.”

Criticism from “within”

Relations between the armed Russian opposition led by the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) and the civilian opposition in exile led by Alexei Navalny's widow Yulia, Ilya Yashin, and the FBK are tense.

Pevchich wrote on social media that the Prosecutor General's Office wants to classify the FBK as a terrorist organization and that the organization is playing a leading role in this area, which Moscow is trying to destroy.

RDK responded on social media that by adding the FBK to the “list of distinguished fighters against the Kremlin dictatorship,” the Kremlin would be elevating the fund to the level of frontline soldiers fighting under the banner of an organization against the Russian army, which Moscow had already classified as terrorist on December 30, 2023, , about a year after its founding.

The volunteer group also recalled that the FBK had not succeeded in any country in the world in passing a law at the legislative level that would make it easier for Russian political emigrants to obtain a residence permit.

“Thanks to the RDK's struggle, a law was signed in Ukraine that shortens the period for acquiring Ukrainian citizenship for Russians who have joined our ranks from three years to one year,” the RDK compares its achievements with those of the “Chancellor's opposition.”

One of the RDK representatives explained that the opposition living off Alexei Navalny's legacy – including the FBK – is dead and that the real opposition is growing “under the banner of the heroic RDK and in underground partisan networks throughout Russia.”

The armed opposition also accuses the FBK of exposing the corruption in Russia even during the war, which leads to the elimination of corruption systems, allowing more money from the Russian budget to flow where it belongs according to plan – so the fund's activities ultimately support Russia's war machine. You may be interested in: “Foreign agents” and “extremist material” have had their day. The Kremlin has tightened legislation

Either way, a possible positive decision by the court and the classification of the FBK as a terrorist organization would be a significant step even in the legal environment of today's Russia, the overall impact of which even experts cannot assess.