Russia closes Kremlin critic's charity for sick children

A Russian court on Monday ruled to close a charity for sick children set up by a prominent Kremlin critic, in a move blasted as "personal revenge".

Yevgeny Roizman, a former lawmaker and ex-mayor of Yekaterinburg, is among a dwindling number of prominent Russian opposition figures who have criticised Russia's military campaign against Ukraine but who have not fled the country or been arrested.

A court in Yekaterinburg ruled Monday to agree to a request lodged by Russia's justice ministry to liquidate his charity, the Roizman Foundation.

Authorities accused the foundation of mismanaging donations, after it collected around $2.7 million for two boys with spinal muscular atrophy, a rare disease that requires costly therapy, state and independent media reported.

Roizman on social media quoted his lawyer as asking the judge during the hearing, "What is this? Personal revenge?"

"This Foundation has helped hundreds of people ... Everything that is happening is illogical, both from a legal point of view and a human one," the lawyer said, according to Roizman.

Roizman became Russia's highest-profile opposition mayor in 2013, a position he held in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg for five years.

A friend and ally of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, he has kept a relatively low profile since 2023, when he faced a five-year jail term on charges of breaching Russia's military censorship laws.

The court fined him, in a rare show of leniency.