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Russia raids offices of Kremlin critic Navalny
MOSCOW, Dec 26, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Russian security officials Thursday
searched the offices of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s anti-corruption
foundation, with his team calling the raid a new bid to disrupt their work.
“What’s happening is part of the coordinated campaign against the anti-
corruption foundation,” Navalny, 43, told reporters, adding however that
authorities would not intimidate them.
“This complicates our work but we will not halt it,” said Navalny,
President Vladimir Putin’s most outspoken critic.
A picture posted by his staff on Twitter showed Navalny sitting on the
floor with his legs crossed and two helmeted and masked men in black uniforms
looking at him.
The opposition politician said he was not detained, contrary to earlier
reports. “I was simply forcibly dragged out of the office (for some reason),”
he said.
Navalny linked the searches to his refusal to take down a 2017 video
report that accused Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of massive corruption and
has racked up nearly 33 million views on YouTube.
The team said the searches were conducted by court bailiffs.
A video released by Navalny’s staff showed the officials trying to break
into the foundation’s offices using a power saw that sent sparks flying.
“New Year’s fireworks,” Navalny’s ally Nikolai Lyaskin quipped on Twitter.
Another video showed men clad in black uniforms, masks and helmets searching
the premises.
Navalny said they were seizing “everything,” and suggested the raids took
place Thursday because he was set to address supporters in a weekly YouTube
broadcast in the evening.
Authorities have been steadily ramping up pressure on Navalny and his
allies in recent years with regular searches and short jail terms for the top
Kremlin critic and his allies.
In August, investigators launched a money-laundering probe into the anti-
corruption foundation, which seeks donations from the public and publishes
investigations into state officials.
In October, authorities declared the foundation a “foreign agent”.
– Opposition reporter detained –
In a separate development, Russia’s top opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta
said Thursday that authorities had searched the Moscow flat of one of its
journalists, Yulia Polukhina.
After the raid, the mother-of-two was taken to “an unknown destination,”
the award-winning newspaper said in a statement.
The newspaper added that the searches were linked to Novaya Gazeta reports
on topics including “illegal armed groups” that operated in war-torn eastern
Ukraine where Kiev is battling pro-Kremlin separatists.
The Investigative Committee said in a statement later Thursday the
journalist was questioned in connection with a case against a criminal gang
she had written about.
Polukhina would later be released, the statement said.
– ‘Roaming polar bears’ –
The offices of Navalny’s foundation have been searched several times this
year and staff even created a Twitter account for its regularly broken-down
front door.
“I’m alive and hanging in there,” the account said on Thursday.
Navalny helped organise major anti-government protests this summer that
saw tens of thousands march in Moscow to demand fair elections.
A number of people received jail terms for taking part in the protests.
On Wednesday, Navalny said that one of his allies had been forcibly
conscripted and sent to serve at a remote Arctic base, a move he and his
supporters said amounted to kidnapping.
Ruslan Shaveddinov, a project manager at Navalny’s foundation, went
missing Monday after police broke into his Moscow flat and his phone’s SIM
card was disabled.
He resurfaced Tuesday at an air defence site on the Novaya Zemlya
archipelago in the Arctic Ocean.
“He was able to call us twice and we learnt that he’s in Novaya Zemlya and
polar bears are roaming nearby,” Navalny said.
The Novaya Zemlya islands were used by the Soviet Union to conduct nuclear
tests.
Opposition supporters said Shaveddinov’s treatment was a new low in
Moscow’s fight against dissenters.
BSS/AFP/RY/1945 hrs