In Moscow, two apartments in which were the wife and the brother of the imprisoned opponent Alexeï Navalny were searched by the police on Wednesday January 27.
"We do not let my lawyer come, we broke my door," shouted to the press from her window Yulia Navalnaïa, the wife of the opponent, whose Moscow apartment was the subject of a police raid .
Arrived at the request of Yulia Navalnaïa, the lawyer Véronika Poliakova waited in the evening in front of the door of the house searched with some journalists, denouncing a "violation of the law" and accusing the police of not allowing her to enter "deliberately".
According to the lawyer, another search was underway at the spokesman of Alexeï Navalny, Kira Iarmych, sentenced to nine days in prison last Friday.
A search was also underway in the offices of the opponent's organization, the Anti-Corruption Fund, Lioubov Sobol, one of his relatives, said on Twitter.
According to the director of this organization, Ivan Zhdanov, another police raid targeted an apartment of the opponent, where his brother Oleg Navalny was.
Investigations in connection with the demonstrations
According to the same source, these raids come as part of an investigation by the Interior Ministry for violation of "sanitary standards" in force because of the epidemic of new coronavirus, after the demonstrations, Saturday, in Russia at the opponent's appeal.
"It was established that organizers and participants in unauthorized protests created a threat of the spread of the new coronavirus," the Interior Ministry said before the searches, saying infected people demonstrated in Moscow.
Investigations in connection with the protests of last Saturday are increasing, as supporters of Alexei Navalny, slayer of corruption and sworn enemy of the Kremlin, announced new gatherings on Sunday.
In Moscow, a demonstration is planned in front of the headquarters of the security services (FSB), while Alexeï Navalny must go before judges next week and risk imprisonment.
Organizers hope to renew the success of their previous day of action on January 23 which saw tens of thousands of Russians defy the ban on demonstrations.
The Russian Investigation Committee, in charge of priority investigations, announced on Wednesday that around twenty investigations had been opened in connection with the demonstrations, in particular for calls for disturbances, hooliganism, violence against the police officers or for incitement of minors to commit illegal acts.
Telecom gendarme Roskomnadzor announced that social networks, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter, would be fined up to 4 million rubles (about 52,600 euros at the current rate) for not having deleted calls encouraging minors to participate in demonstrations.
The Interior Ministry has opened an investigation for blocking public roads, especially in Vladivostok where protesters blocked traffic.
The demonstrations in a hundred Russian cities, an exceptional geographic scope for Russia, resulted in nearly 3,900 arrests.
To fuel this movement, Navalny's team published a resounding anti-corruption investigation last week on a lavish palace allegedly built on the Black Sea for Vladimir Putin, which the latter has denied.
Alexei Navalny accused the Russian secret service (FSB) of having poisoned him at the end of August with a nerve agent on the orders of the Russian president.
Charges rejected by the Kremlin.
After recovering for five months in Germany, the opponent returned to Russia on January 17 and was immediately arrested.
He is the subject of multiple legal proceedings.
With AFP
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