In Russia, the Leningrad Regional Court has published a ruling recognising the book “Patriot” by opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who died in prison, as “extremist”.
Navalny’s memoirs, published by Lithuanian publishing house One Book Publishing, were added to the list of “extremist” materials on 30 July. Mediazona has learnt that this happened following the results of consideration of the lawsuit sent to the court by Kingisepp Customs. The book was found and seized by customs officers in the personal belongings of Alexei Mikhailov, who was crossing the Ivangorod border checkpoint from Estonia to Russia. Mikhailov was supposed to be a defendant in the trial, but did not appear in court. What happened to him and where he is now is unknown.
According to the court ruling, the book “Patriot” was submitted for examination to the expert forensic service in Nizhny Novgorod. As a result, the examination revealed that Navalny’s memoirs contain:
- “a set of linguistic and psychological signs of extremist meanings, namely incitement of hatred and hostility against the group “the current government of the Russian Federation”, singled out on the basis of social affiliation.”
- “signs of information that may harm the political or economic interests of the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union, their state security, health and morality of citizens”.
Russian Federation declared Navalny’s memoirs “extremist”
Alexei Navalny’s memoir “Patriot” was published on 22 October 2024, about nine months after the politician died in a Russian colony. The book has been translated into more than 20 languages. The politician’s memoir was named “book of the year” at the British Book Awards for 2025.