Russia’s financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring on Thursday added exiled political analyst Ekaterina Schulmann and philanthropist Boris Zimin to its list of “terrorists and extremists.”
The designation enables authorities to freeze bank accounts and block access to financial services without a court order. Rosfinmonitoring’s list of “terrorists and extremists” includes more than 17,800 individuals and over 800 organizations.
Schulmann, a prominent commentator on parliamentary politics, left Russia for Germany in early 2022 to pursue academic work shortly after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. She is currently a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, which was designated an “undesirable organization” in 2024.
Russian law enforcement authorities issued a warrant for Schulmann’s arrest earlier this year. In July, a Moscow court ordered her to be placed in pre-trial detention in absentia.
Schulmann was designated a “foreign agent” in 2022. She was fined 50,000 rubles ($600) last year for failing to include a “foreign agent” label in her public appearances and statements, an accusation she denies.
Zimin, meanwhile, is the son of the late businessman Dmitry Zimin, a telecoms pioneer who founded Russia’s first mobile phone service and later dedicated most of his wealth to philanthropic work.
Following in his father’s footsteps, Boris Zimin has been a major backer of independent media, science, education and political opposition causes in Russia. Russian authorities labeled his foundation a “foreign agent” roughly a decade ago, later applying the designation to Zimin himself.
In April, a Moscow court sentenced him to nine years in prison in absentia on fraud charges related to the sale of shares in the Russian car-sharing company BelkaCar.
Law enforcement authorities first pressed charges against Zimin in 2021 and issued an international arrest warrant for him in 2023. The philanthropist has lived abroad since 2004.
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