Russian opposition politician and activist Aleksei Navalny has announced the closure of his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK or ACF) after using it to expose controversial cases in the Kremlin's inner circle.

According to the July 20 announcement, Navalny is being forced to shut down the ACF on the lawsuit filed by the Moscow Schoolchild food company, which is associated with businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin.

As reported by bne IntelliNews, the restaurateur Yevgeny "Putin's chef" Prigozhin, allegedly also involved in the intelligence community, was claimed to be involved in illegal procurement deals for the defence ministry.

Prigozhin allegedly operates several procurement schemes that have won a total of RUB180bn (€282bn) in Russian defence contracts over the last five years, including multiple no-bid procurement deals, the ACF claimed.

He is sanctioned in the US under the 2018 Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), and the number of individuals and entities linked to Prizgozhin has been recently expanded. 

"We will move to another legal entity, let Putin and Prigozhin choke on this. But the greatest value, you [the viewers], we need to take with us," Navalny wrote when announcing the closure of ACF.

In October 2019, a Moscow court ordered Navalny, opposition activist Lyubov Sobol and the ACF to pay RUB88mn ($1.2mn) over a lawsuit filed by the company linked to Prigozhin, which supplies Moscow schools and kindergartens with food.

The ACF in its video alleged that the company did not comply with sanitary standards, forged documents and supplied poor-quality food to kindergartens and schools.