Russia Labels Ex-Lawmaker Gennady Gudkov 'Terrorist'

Russia’s state financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring has added exiled opposition lawmaker Gennady Gudkov to its list of “terrorists and extremists.”

Gudkov, a former KGB colonel, served in Russia’s lower-house State Duma from 2001 until his ouster in 2012 over what an ethics committee said was unlawful entrepreneurship.

At the time, the 67-year-old denied any wrongdoing and insisted that he was being attacked for supporting the opposition movement against President Vladimir Putin’s re-election earlier that year.

In 2019, Gudkov fled Russia to Bulgaria over fears he could be arrested. 

Gudkov briefly served as one of the leaders of the Congress of People’s Deputies of Russia, an anti-war initiative that aims to create a body of former Russian lawmakers in exile. 

In May, Russia blacklisted the group as an “undesirable” organization and the exiled politician announced his exit, citing his engagement with another anti-war coalition, the Paris-based Russian Democratic Club.

Gudkov’s designation as a “terrorist and extremist” comes on the same day a Moscow court arrested in absentia his son, another former Duma member, Dmitry Gudkov for criticizing the invasion of Ukraine. 

Being added to Russia's registry of “extremists and terrorists” allows the authorities to freeze designees' bank accounts without a court order.