MOSCOW (AP) – Police in Moscow on Wednesday launched a series of raids on apartments and offices of the prison of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s family and associates, who arrested his brother.
The places sought included Navalny’s apartment, where police detained his brother, Oleg, and a rental apartment where Navalny’s wife, Yulia, lived.
On Internet TV station Dozhd, Yulia Navalny told reporters that police did not allow her lawyer to enter the apartment.
The raids took place four days before protests that Navalny’s supporters demanded on Sunday.
Demonstrations calling for his release took place last Saturday in more than 100 cities across the country, a strong sign of rising anger against the Kremlin. Nearly 4,000 people were arrested during the protests.
Other places where police raided on Wednesday were the offices of Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation and the studio that produces its videos and online broadcasts. The popular videos and broadcasts helped make Navalny into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent and persistent enemy.
There were no immediate comments from police about the searches. Navalny associates said on social media that the searches were related to alleged violations of epidemiological regulations of the mass protests in Moscow last week.
But “the real reason for the search of Navalny’s teams, family members and office is Putin’s crazy fear,” Navalny’s team said in a message.
Navalny’s challenge to Putin has intensified after he was arrested on January 17 on his return from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from the poisoning of drugs he blames the Kremlin.
Two days after his arrest, his organization released an extensive video report on a palace allegedly built for Putin. It has been viewed tens of millions of times, causing further dissatisfaction.
Navalny, the Kremlin’s most prominent and enduring enemy, fell into a coma on August 20 while on a domestic flight from Siberia to Moscow. He was transferred from a hospital in Siberia to a Berlin hospital two days later. Labs in Germany, France and Sweden, and tests by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, determined that he was exposed to Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent.
Russian authorities have refused to launch a full-fledged criminal investigation, citing a lack of evidence that Navalny was poisoned.
In December, Navalny released the recording of a phone call he said he made to a man he described as a suspected member of a group of Federal Security Service officers, or FSBs, who allegedly August poisoned and then tried to cover. on. The FSB dismissed the survey as false.
Navalny’s arrest and the harsh police action during the protests drew widespread criticism from the West, calling for his release.
Russia’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that a statement by the Group of Seven Foreign Ministers condemning its arrest was “gross interference” in Russia’s internal affairs.