Russian police raid protest leader’s office
Alexei Navalny streams a live video as masked officers use power tools to cut through the front door
Russian security forces yesterday raided the office of an opposition leader. Alexei Navalny, who has led major anti-government protests in recent years, live-streamed a video as law enforcement officers cut through the front door. Masked men could be seen gathering his employees and telling them: “Put your face to the wall! Stay where you are!” Mr Navalny, who is known for investigating official corruption, said the raid was timed to disrupt his weekly Youtube show.
‘They clearly chose this day because I have a show tonight’
RUSSIAN authorities yesterday stepped up the pressure on the country’s opposition by raiding the office of a protest leader and his team.
Alexei Navalny, who has been the driving force behind major anti-government protests in recent years, livestreamed a video from his office as law enforcement officers cut through the front door with an electric saw yesterday morning.
A video released by Mr Navalny’s Youtube channel showed several masked men gather the foundation’s employees in a room with a Christmas tree and a disco ball and tell them: “Put your face to the wall! Stay where you are!”
The officers then disabled the CCTV cameras.
The raid on Mr Navalny’s Anti-corruption Foundation in Moscow was one of several this year and came just a few days after one of his allies was detained and sent off for military service at a remote Arctic base.
Both incidents appear to be the latest steps in an unusually vigorous crackdown on opposition movements by the Kremlin.
Mr Navalny, who made his name thanks to investigations into official corruption, said that yesterday’s raid was timed to disrupt his weekly Youtube show, which was to be streamed live in the evening.
“They clearly chose this day because I have a show tonight,” tweeted Mr Navalny, whose show last week garnered more than 1.4 million views on Youtube.
Police and investigators have raided Mr Navalny’s offices several times this year.
Each time, they would seize the team’s equipment including cameras used for streaming Youtube shows.
Mr Navalny’s foundation has asked supporters to donate money to buy new equipment to replace items the investigators seized and failed to return.
Leonid Volkov, one of Mr Navalny’s key allies, described the raid as a “robbery”.
Several hours later, he said that the bank account that the foundation uses for collecting donations had been blocked.
Mr Navalny and his associates joked about the raid, which came a few days before New Year’s Eve, Russia’s biggest annual holiday.
Nikolai Lyaskin, an employee of the Anti-corruption Foundation, tweeted about the video of the sparks flying off the electric saw cutting through the office door with the caption: “New Year’s Eve fireworks.”
The raid was connected to a 2017 court ruling that ordered Mr Navalny to take down a viral Youtube video of his investigation into the alleged secret wealth of Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian prime minister.
The 50-minute film, which triggered a wave of nationwide protests in spring 2017, has been watched more than 32million times and is still available on Mr Navalny’s Youtube channel.
Earlier this week an ally of Mr Navalny was detained and sent off to serve at a top-secret military base in the Arctic. He had been appealing against his military conscription.
Ruslan Shaveddinov, 23, disappeared on Monday after police broke into his flat and took him in for questioning.
The military later said he had been sent to serve on Novaya Zemlya, a remote archipelago in the Arctic Ocean which is home to a top-secret missile defence installation and was one of the Soviet Union’s main nuclear testing grounds during the Cold War.
Vladimir Putin, the president, took to the skating rink in Red Square late on Wednesday evening for an exhibition ice hockey game with NHL stars, scoring most of his team’s goals.
Yesterday evening, Mr Putin spoke at a gala performance for the country’s top officials at Moscow’s legendary Bolshoi Theatre.
He said that Christmas and New Year’s Eve were “full of hopes of new achievements in the new year” and wished everyone happy holidays. He did not comment on the raids at Mr Navalny’s office.
Mr Putin previously dismissed suggestions that the Kremlin uses law enforcement agencies and courts to go after its opponents.
An investigative journalist for a prominent opposition newspaper was also detained by Russian special forces yesterday.
Novaya Gazeta said investigators called on the home of Yulia Polukhina, its special correspondent, at 6am, and searched it for about four hours before taking Ms Polukhina for questioning.
The mother-of-two had no access to a lawyer and was released in the late afternoon, the paper said.
Investigators later said that Ms Polukhina, who has covered criminal activities in separatist-held eastern Ukraine, was questioned about a criminal gang from that area.