Russia Designates Ex-Pussy Riot Member Pyotr Verzilov ‘Terrorist’
Russia’s state financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring added exiled Russian-Canadian activist Pyotr Verzilov to the country’s list of “terrorists and extremists,” state media reported Tuesday.
Verzilov, a former member of the anti-Kremlin performance art group Pussy Riot, was sentenced to over eight years in prison in absentia earlier this year under wartime censorship laws. Authorities accused him of spreading false information about the Russian military.
The activist is also currently under investigation for treason. Federal Security Service (FSB) agents carried out searches in several Russian cities as part of that investigation.
Being added to Russia’s lists of “extremists and terrorists” allows the authorities to freeze designees’ bank accounts without a court order.
Verzilov, who was the publisher of the independent news outlet Mediazona until October last year, fled Russia in 2020 amid police searches at his and his relatives’ homes after he was charged with failing to inform the Russian authorities about his Canadian citizenship.
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