MOSCOW, September 28. /TASS/. The Russian Investigative Committee has launched a criminal case against blogger Alexei Navalny on the grounds of creating an extremist group, the committee told reporters in a statement on Tuesday.

"The main investigative department of the Russian Investigative Committee has launched a criminal case under Article 282.1 Part 1 of the Russian Criminal Code (creating and leading extremism group) against A. Navalny, L. Volkov, I. Zhdanov and other people as well as under Article 282.1 Part 2 of the Russian Criminal Code (participating in extremist group) against L. Sobol, G. Alburov, R. Shaveddinov, V. Gimadi, P. Zelensky, R. Mulyukov and other people," the Investigative Committee noted.

According to the committee’s information, Navalny created an extremist group as the founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (declared extremist and shut down in Russia) at least by 2014 and headed it "to engage in extremist activities aimed at changing constitutional basis of Russia and undermine public security and state integrity." Volkov and Zhdanov joined the group at that time. The committee added that eight non-profit organizations, branches of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, were created to manage the extremist group and finance it.