Boris and Dmitry Zimin. Photo: Zimin Foundation

Russia has designated the charitable organisation the Zimin Foundation an “undesirable organisation”, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced on Tuesday, alleging that it provided financial support to people “involved in extremist activities and terrorism”.

Established in 2015 after the Russian authorities labelled its predecessor, the Dynasty Foundation, a “foreign agent”, the Zimin Foundation has supported various independent educational, journalistic and scientific projects over the years. It was founded by the late Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Zimin and his son, Boris, who took over as leader of the foundation following his father’s death in 2021.

The Prosecutor General’s Office accused the Zimin Foundation of financially supporting those who are “hostile to Russia” after it allocated 30 subsidies in February 2025 to various journalism outlets and research projects in exile that had lost American funding after the Trump administration froze foreign aid in January.

The Zimin Foundation notably also co-founded Redkollegia, an independent media award designed to support independent journalism which awards a monetary prize to several authors each month. The foundation announced on Tuesday that Redkollegia and the Enlightener Prize, awarded to best non-fiction books written in Russian, would continue its work without the Zimin Foundation’s support.

Boris Zimin, who has lived abroad for over 20 years, is well known for his financial support of independent media and educational projects, funding Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny’s emergency evacuation to Germany in 2020 after his poisoning attempt in Siberia. He was also a major donor to Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation until June 2024, when he announced that he would withdraw his funding.

Zimin was designated a “foreign agent” in 2022 and sentenced to nine years in prison in absentia for fraud in April.