The court liquidated the "Urban Projects" fund of Varlamov* and Katz* at the request of the Ministry of Justice.

      The basis for the court proceedings was a scheduled documentary audit conducted by the Ministry of Justice in 2025, covering the foundation's activities from 2022 to 2024. The agency assessed how the actual work of the organization aligns with the goals stated in the founding documents and whether the foundation complies with Russian legislation. Following the audit, violations were recorded, which served as the grounds for the court appeal, reports the online publication "Vedomosti."

      The hearings in the case began on July 22, and the court has now made a final decision to liquidate "Urban Projects."

      Both co-founders have long been under close scrutiny from regulatory authorities. Ilya Varlamov* was included in the register of foreign agents in March 2023; his attempts to challenge this status in courts of various instances were unsuccessful. In August 2025, the Meshchansky Court of Moscow sentenced the blogger in absentia to eight years in a penal colony and a fine of over 99.5 million rubles for spreading fake information about the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. On October 21, 2025, Rosfinmonitoring added Varlamov* to its register of terrorists and extremists.

      Maxim Katz* received an in absentia sentence – also eight years in a penal colony – from the Basmanny Court back in August 2023 under the same article (part 2 of article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Additionally, the court prohibited him from administering websites for four years. The status of foreign agent was assigned to Katz on July 22, 2022.

      It is worth noting that in previous years, Ilya Varlamov had visited Russian regions multiple times for public events. In particular, he traveled to Kirov and interacted with the then-mayor Ilya Shulgin, who has since left the mayor's office.

      Recall that the former head of the administration, Ilya Shulgin, was accused under part 3 of article 33, part 3 of article 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (organization of abuse and abuse of official powers). The first sentence in the case was handed down back in July 2022, which imposed a suspended sentence of 3 years on Shulgin. However, the sentence was overturned, and the Kirov Regional Court sent the case for reconsideration. The new sentence, despite the efforts of the lawyers, turned out to be significantly harsher than the initial one. In February 2023, the suspended sentence of the former head of the Kirov administration turned into a real one. Shulgin was found guilty and sentenced to 2.5 years in a general regime colony.