A search was conducted in the apartment of the ex-coordinator of Open Russia in Tyumen

The apartment of the former coordinator of the Tyumen branch of Open Russia, Anton Mikhalchuk, was searched. He told OVD-Info about this personally.

According to Mikhalchuk, law enforcement officers came to the apartment, which he previously rented. During the search, the security forces seized electronic media.

Mikhalchuk is a defendant in a criminal case under article 284.1 of the Criminal Code (carrying out activities of an undesirable organization in Russia). Now he is abroad, where he is studying. The Russian authorities put the activist on the federal wanted list.

The organization of the seminar and the conduct of the videoconference became the basis for initiating a criminal case. The Human Rights Postcard wrote about this with reference to his lawyer Mikhalchuk, Olga Pogozhuya.

The case was opened on March 6th. The lawyer received a decision to initiate a case only on May 27. Investigators singled out two “signs of a crime”: on February 17, 2018, “acted as a coordinator at a seminar”, on October 25 of the same year, “held a direct videoconferencing line” - we are talking about an online conference with Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

UPD 15:38 A search was also held in the apartment of Mikhalchuk's parents. According to the activist, he has not lived there for 10 years. The security forces also seized electronic media.

• In April 2017, the Prosecutor General's Office declared undesirable several organizations associated with Mikhail Khodorkovsky, registered in the UK and the USA. The Russian movement "Open Russia" was not banned.
• Criminal cases of an "undesirable organization" were opened against the former coordinators of the Krasnodar and Yekaterinburg branches of Open Russia Yana Antonova and Maxim Vernikov and a member of the federal assembly of the movement Anastasia Shevchenko .
• On March 30, Open Russia declared self-liquidation for security reasons.