Political crowdfunding by individuals no longer allowed in Russia

On Monday, the online wallet service Yandex.Money announced that it would stop allowing online transfers of money to individuals for political purposes in order to comply with Russian election laws—a decision many see as aimed at undermining opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is using the service to crowdfund his 2018 presidential campaign.

In a blog post published on Monday afternoon, Navalny drew attention to an email sent on Jan. 20 from Yandex.Money to Leonid Volkov, his campaign manager and the man in whose name Navalny’s Yandex.Money account is registered. In the email, Yandex warned that funneling political funding through individuals could violate Russia’s election laws.