Literary critic Alexander Gavrilov was searched in connection with the case of the wife of Navalny's ally

The literary critic Alexander Gavrilov was searched in the case of Alexandrina Markvo, the wife of Vladimir Ashurkov, an associate of Alexei Navalny.

As Gavrilov told Meduza, on the morning of March 10, three people came to see him: an FSB officer, an investigator from the Investigative Committee, and a policeman. The search lasted six hours. Gavrilov's laptop and phone were taken away, but he was left with a desktop computer. The critic noted that the staff were "very nice" and the search "was not at all like a search for intimidation."

In 2012, according to Gavrilov, he provided consulting and organizational support to the Books in the Parks project, to which Markvo called him.

Alexandrina Markvo is accused of fraud: according to investigators, her company Bureau17 embezzled money received from the Moscow authorities for holding events, including the Books in the Parks festival. Markvo was arrested in absentia. Together with her husband Vladimir Ashurkov, executive director of the Alexei Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation, she received asylum in the UK.

According to RBC , the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation began to actively investigate the case of Alexandrina Markvo after the FBK published an investigation into the " secret empire " of Dmitry Medvedev. In addition to Gavrilov, searches were also carried out at the homes of three Bureau17 employees.

In addition, according to RBC, on March 10, the Investigative Committee summoned six people for interrogation in the case of raising funds for the mayoral campaign of Navalny in 2013 (Ashurkov is a suspect in the case along with Nikolai Lyaskin and Konstantin Yankauskas). In total, several hundred people who transferred money to Navalny were interrogated in this case.

• Alexander Gavrilov is one of the organizers of the non/fiction book fair and co-founder of the Ridero book publishing service. He is a member of the jury of many literary awards.