Moscow police visit homes of Navalny supporters whose data leaked online

On the evening of August 17, Moscow police visited the homes of Alexey Navalny supporters whose addresses were included in leaked databases associated with the opposition politician’s initiatives.

According to OVD-Info, police officers showed up at the homes of at least 20 people who had registered on the “Smart Vote” website, or on free.navalny.com, or made donations to the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK). This was also confirmed to Meduza by a source who is aware of at least one such case.

Update. As of 6:00 p.m. Moscow time on August 18, OVD-Info reported that Moscow police had visited more than 100 people whose data leaked online.

OVD-Info and the publication Sota reported that in some instances, the police asked people to write complaints against Alexey Navalny over the illegal transfer of personal data.

Novaya Gazeta special correspondent Ilya Azar wrote on Telegram that police officers also visited his home on the evening of August 17. “I wasn’t home, but they said something to the neighbors about personal data, which, they say, ended up on the Internet,” the journalist said.

• In April, a database with the email addresses of Navalny supporters who had registered their intent to attend a rally on the website free.navalny.com was made publicly available. Team Navalny confirmed the authenticity of the database and apologized for the leak. On May 31, Navalny’s associates announced that the St. Petersburg activist Fedor Gorozhanko, who worked for the FBK from 2016 to 2019, was involved in the data leak. Gorozhanko denies the allegations.
• In June, reports emerged that a database of Smart Vote subscribers was up for sale on a deep web forum. Among other things, the database supposedly contained the residential addresses of Smart Vote participants from Moscow and the Moscow region. On August 16, the business newspaper Kommersant reported that expanded databases containing the residential addresses and places of work of of Smart Vote subscribers had appeared on Telegram channels and on the darknet.
• The FBK and other organizations connected to jailed opposition politician Alexey Navalny were designated as “extremist” on June 9, following a complaint from Moscow prosecutors. This status came into force after a court ruling on August 4.