Russia’s Supreme Court deems pro-democracy Congress of People’s Deputies ‘terrorist organisation’

The Russian Supreme Court has classified the Congress of People’s Deputies, a grouping of Russian politicians in exile formed as a transitional body able to take power temporarily in Russia in the event of the current regime’s collapse, as a “terrorist organisation”, news agency TASS reported on Monday.

Meeting in a closed-door session, the Supreme Court announced that it had approved a request submitted in October by Russia’s Prosecutor General Alexander Gutsan that the organisation be given the Russian government’s most damning label. 

The Congress of People’s Deputies was set up in Poland by former State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomaryov alongside other outspoken former lawmakers in 2022 to be a democratic body made up of Russian politicians who had won mandates at some level of the Russian political system. Since then, it has been framed by Ponomaryov and his associates as a government in exile, though it remains unrecognised by any state.

In its lawsuit, the Prosecutor General’s Office accused the congress of “seeking to violently seize power in the country, as well as perform the functions of the legislative, judicial and executive branches of government.” In addition, it alleged that members of the congress were guilty of denying Russia’s territorial integrity and promoting the use of separatist slogans.

Ponomaryov, who resides in Kyiv, has been living in exile since 2016, having been the sole member of Russia’s State Duma to vote against the annexation of Crimea in 2014, and before he was impeached and removed from office after being charged with embezzlement.

Ponomaryov was targeted with multiple drone strikes on his Kyiv residence in the summer of 2024, the most recent of which left him with shrapnel wounds.

In September 2024, Ponomaryov was sentenced to 10 years in prison in absentia after being found guilty of “publicly justifying terrorism” and “spreading false information about the Russian army” for various public statements he made in support of anti-war Russians who set fire to military conscription offices and vehicles sporting the pro-war Z symbol.