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    13.06.2012

    Raids Target Putin’s Critics Before Protest

    Officers emerged after a search of the apartment of the Russian blogger Aleksei Navalny in Moscow on Monday.

    Leonid Lebedev/Associated Press

    The Kremlin raised pressure on Russia’s opposition movement on Monday, searching the homes of several of its leading figures. The coordinated early-morning raids sent a new shudder through political circles preparing for another large demonstration in central Moscow on Tuesday.

    Before Vladimir V. Putin returned to the presidency in May, one question that hung in the air was whether he would take steps to suppress the wave of dissent that swelled under his mild-mannered predecessor, Dmitri A. Medvedev.

    Nobody is asking that anymore. In the past week, the Kremlin has taken measures against protests that go beyond any in the 12 years since Mr. Putin first took the presidency. Last week his party, United Russia, rammed through Parliament a law imposing heavy fines for taking part in unapproved demonstrations.

    More than a dozen people have already been arrested in connection with the last large protest, and face criminal charges which could bring years in prison. Executives at two high-profile publications notable for airing opposition views were abruptly replaced last week.

    The Monday raids targeted some of the youngest and most vigorous opposition leaders. Kseniya Sobchak, the vampy television star who has thrown her fame behind the protest movement, came to the door half-dressed Monday morning to find a team of criminal investigators, who demanded access to her personal correspondence and left with more than $1.2 million in cash that she was holding in a safe.

    Ms. Sobchak has long been considered untouchable because of her family connections — her father, a former mayor of St. Petersburg, served as Mr. Putin’s mentor — and her participation in the protests last winter made them seem safe, even fashionable. She seemed particularly shaken after Monday’s search, which she said left her without any money to live on.

    “They humiliated me; they humiliated me more than once,” Ms. Sobchak told Dozhd, a Web-based news channel. “I never thought I would say this, but how good that my father wasn’t here to see this.”

    Ten teams of investigators fanned out across the city starting at 7 a.m. to the homes of opposition leaders, their parents and in-laws.

    In a modest neighborhood on the city’s outskirts, they banged on the door of Aleksei Navalny, the 35-year-old anticorruption blogger, stationing guards in black, armed with Kalashnikovs, outside his entryway. They remained for 13 hours, while dozens of journalists and supporters waited outside for Mr. Navalny to emerge. He did, finally, in an ebullient mood, saying he had spent the whole day lecturing the investigators about high-level corruption and that they had all agreed to join his political party.

    “Come to tomorrow’s protest, so that the next search is not at your house,” Mr. Navalny said. But he, like all the other targets, has been summoned to appear for questioning Tuesday at 11 a.m., an hour before the protest is to begin, all but guaranteeing that he will not be at the protest.

    The last large demonstration, on May 6, overshadowed coverage of Mr. Putin’s inauguration and ended in a brawl that injured more than 20 officers and an unknown number of demonstrators. Mr. Putin, with his long background in law enforcement, was evidently infuriated by the sight of officers bloodied by flying pieces of asphalt. Officials since then have spoken passionately about the need to put a stop to a radical strain that has infected Russian society.

    Yevgeny N. Minchenko, director of the International Institute for Political Expertise, said the harsh new law on protests took place because “the authorities are disturbed by the attacks on riot police on the 6th of May.”

    “The situation has cardinally changed,” he said. “Two years ago there was no risk that the protests would become radicalized, and now this risk really exists.”

    In Washington, a spokeswoman for the State Department condemned a series of steps taken by the Russian government, including the passage of the protest law, Monday’s coordinated searches and the summons for opposition leaders to report for questioning on Tuesday, which she said was “clearly designed to take them off the streets during the demonstration.”

    “All taken together, these measures raise serious questions about the arbitrary use of law enforcement to stifle free speech and free assembly,” said the spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland. She said an American envoy would raise the issue this week during talks with Russian officials.

    Russia’s Investigative Committee said Monday’s searches were related to a criminal case opened after the May 6 protests. They singled out Mr. Navalny and Ms. Sobchak, the leftist Sergei Udaltsov, the liberal organizer Ilya Yashin and veteran activist Boris Y. Nemtsov, among others. It was unclear how prosecutors linked them to the May 6 violence — Ms. Sobchak did not attend the event at all, and Mr. Navalny and Mr. Udaltsov were detained far from the clashes, as they prepared to speak from a podium.

    Investigators said Monday’s searches had yielded “a large amount of propaganda and literature with antigovernment slogans,” electronic databases and, in the Udaltsov apartment, “a list of individuals who share their views.” A statement said they had taken Ms. Sobchak’s money so that they could examine the sources and determine “what goal it was intended for.”

    Tuesday’s protest is shaping up as a test of resolve for both the protesters and the authorities. Organizers have a shaky ability to predict turnout, which is generated mainly via the social media. Some leaders were so convinced the wave was ebbing that they skipped the May 6 event, only to be shocked when tens of thousands gathered.

    “So many things could happen tomorrow that to set out strict conditions is senseless,” said Aleksandr Ryklin, who led an organizational meeting on Monday. “We didn’t believe that some new wave of repression would begin, right? Let’s come to the present. In Moscow today, a repressive machine has started up.”

    Ms. Sobchak said in an interview that she would not be surprised if she became the target of a criminal case. Hours after her apartment was searched, photographs from inside — apparently acquired from law enforcement — were posted on the pro-Kremlin Web site LifeNews.ru, along with a text saying she had answered the door wearing only skimpy underpants. She said she had always asserted herself as a moderate within the opposition movement, urging other leaders to act within the law, but that she would have no way to defend herself in a Russian court.

    “They can charge me with murder, or rape, or financing the opposition, based on the fact that on some envelope I had written the word — I don’t know — Astana, or Kazan, they could assign some meaning to it,” Ms. Sobchak said. “It is all in the hands of the law enforcement system, so what can you do? You can either shut up, which is what most people do, or you can speak, and get what I got.”


    Andrew Roth and Anna Kordunsky contributed reporting.
    This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

    Correction: June 12, 2012

    An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that editors of two-high profile publications in Moscow were replaced for running material supporting the opposition. One man was an editor, and the other was a chief executive; neither man was explicitly fired for this reason.

     http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/world/europe/russian-investigators-search-apartments-of-top-opposition-leaders.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss