Click to expand Image Olga Sibireva. © Private Those reporting on Russia are rarely surprised these days to learn that another critic of the Russian government is being prosecuted over alleged involvement with a “foreign undesirable organization.” But even in Russia, the case against Olga Sibireva rises to new heights of absurdity.Sibireva is an expert on religious freedom at SOVA Center, a leading independent Russian think tank researching racism, xenophobia, ultra-nationalism, and the authorities’ abuse of counter-extremism and counterterrorism legislation. This week, a Russian court found Sibireva guilty of cooperating with the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance (IRFBA), an inter-governmental organization banned in Russia as “undesirable,” and fined her 15,000 rubles (US$180).According to SOVA, which the Russian government also blacklisted as a “foreign agent,” neither Sibireva nor any other SOVA experts have ever engaged with the IRFBA. The charges against Sibireva stem instead from allegations that several Western-based groups working with the IRFBA have quoted Sibireva’s publications in their reports.In other words, Sibireva’s supposed offense boils down to the fact that some groups allegedly linked to a banned organization read her reports online and quoted them without her knowledge. Seemingly based on this perverse logic, the prosecutor argued that Sibireva provided “infrastructural epistemic support” to “undesirable” activities as “a functional node in a distributed network.” Whatever that means. And despite any coherent explanation, the judge evidently agreed.Sibireva is expected to appeal the verdict, but given the Kremlin’s staggering crackdown on critics and the profoundly compromised independence of Russia’s judiciary, her chances of getting the verdict reversed are slim. Worse, if the authorities target her again with further groundless “undesirable” charges, she could face imprisonment.This outrageous case is not only about punishing Sibireva. It sends a chilling message to all critics of the government: we can come after you even when you have done nothing to violate the law. You do not need to cooperate with an “undesirable” organization, communicate with it, or even know that someone connected to it is reading your work. If you are planning to publish or say anything the authorities may dislike – you’ve been warned.