Russia May Ban Putin Critic's Network, T-Shirts Could Be Outlawed Too

The evidence to be used in the case is itself a state secret. Navalny's attorney has been told he will get access to the file shortly beforehand, according to Navalny ally Ivan Zhdanov.

A closed-door Moscow court hearing Monday is expected to officially ban the political and anti-corruption networks of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, a ruling that would mark the most sweeping attempt to crush the Kremlin's greatest political threat. The evidence to be used in the case is itself a state secret. Navalny's attorney has been told he will get access to the file shortly beforehand, according to Navalny ally Ivan Zhdanov. If the court sides with the prosecutor's general request - declaring Navalny's political group and his Anti-Corruption Foundation to be extremist organizations - it would put them alongside the Islamic State, al-Qaida and the Taliban in the eyes of Russian authorities. The rights group Amnesty International said it would be "one of the most serious blows for the rights to freedom of expression and association in Russia's post-Soviet history."