In Sochi, security forces came to search the home of a human rights activist and broke down the door

In Sochi, they came to the apartment of human rights activist Semyon Simonov with a search. about this on Twitter . wrote Alexander Popkov, a lawyer for the international human rights group Agora,

According to the lawyer, security forces broke down his front door.

Popkov did not specify what the search was connected with. Later, the lawyer wrote that the search was carried out by the investigator and the district police officer - “by no means the Investigative Committee.” “The grounds are unclear - some kind of criminal case, the details are unknown. The searchers told the neighbors that Simonov was being financed by evil Ukrainians,” Popkov clarified.

After the search, the head of Agora, Pavel Chikov , wrote in his telegram channel that the investigative actions took place in a criminal case “about some kind of forgery of constituent documents” of the Southern Human Rights Center. The security forces took away the organization's documents and seals, as well as computers and other storage media. Simonov was then interrogated as a witness.

Semyon Simonov previously coordinated the “Migration and Law” program in Sochi, which was organized by the Memorial human rights center. Now he directs the Southern Human Rights Center. The organization conducts educational events and conducts inspections of police departments.

In March 2018, a court in Sochi fined Simonov for failure to pay the Southern Human Rights Center a 300 thousand ruble fine for violating the law on “foreign agents.”

Updated at 16:56 and 21:06. Added details of the search and Chikov's commentary.