MOSCOW, November 17 (Sputnik) – The Russian Supreme Court on Monday ruled the Ukrainian right radical organizations of the Right Sector and the UNA-UNSO as extremist and banned their activity in Russia, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported from the courtroom.
“The Russian General Prosecutor’s suit on recognizing the Ukrainian National Assembly-Ukrainian People’s Self-Defense (UNA-UNSO) and the Right Sector as extremist organizations and banning their activities on the territory of the Russian Federation has been satisfied,” the judge said.
The lawsuit was tried behind closed doors because the court reviewed secret documents.
The Russian court also outlawed a Ukrainian right radical group called Stepan Bandera's Tryzub (Trident), which is named after a wartime Nazi collaborator responsible for mass murders in Ukraine.
The banned groups took part in the first Euromaidan protests in November 2013.
The Right Sector is considered to be a political spin-off of UNA-UNSO. The Right Sector was converted into a political party at a convention on March 22, with UNA-UNSO members making up the backbone of the party.
In March 2014, the Russian Investigation Committee opened a criminal investigation into Ukrainian nationals with links to UNA-UNSO, whom it accused of fighting alongside Chechen separatists against Russian federal forces in the 1990s. Among those being investigated is Right Sector leader Dmytro Yarosh.
Russia put Yarosh on an international wanted list and charged him with inciting extremism after he publicly appealed to Doku Umarov, the self-proclaimed head of a secessionist Islamic radical group in Russia’s Northern Caucasus, to help fight against the “Russian occupation of Ukraine”.
Despite the charges, Yarosh ran for the parliament during the October vote in Ukraine and was confirmed on November 6 to have won in a single-member electoral district.
