In St. Petersburg, activists were searched

Searches are being carried out at the homes of opposition activists and local residents in St. Petersburg, reports North-West.MBH Media.

It is known about the visit of security forces to the registration address of the former press secretary of the “Vesna” movement Artem Uimanen (where he has not lived for a long time), to “Vesna” activists Ilya Gantvarg and Pavel Chuprunov, to the former municipal deputy Svetlana Utkina, to the participant of the “Perpetual Protest” Svetlana Kovalets, to activists Gavrila Filippov and Artem Vladimirov.

It is not yet known what exactly the searches are related to.

Relatives of activists reported to OVD-Info about two more searches in St. Petersburg - at two addresses of Libertarian Party member Galina Ageeva and at Denis Starikov. At the same time, Starikov is not at home; his father is present during the search.

A search was also reported at the home of another St. Petersburg activist, whose name was asked not to be published.

10:35 The search at Uymanen’s place is over. The search took place as part of a criminal case under the article on “blocking roads” (Article 267 of the Criminal Code) in connection with the January 23 rally in support of Alexei Navalny. Security forces took away an old laptop and old non-working hard drives, activists told OVD-Info.

11:00 The search also ended at Svetlana Kovalets. Her equipment was confiscated, the activist was taken for interrogation, the telegram channel “Detentions St. Petersburg” reports .

At 7 a.m., they also came to search the house of activist Marina Parkina, who opposes the construction of a port in Primorsk. During the search she became ill: she was pregnant and was taken to the maternity hospital. Parkina’s equipment was confiscated, a friend of hers told OVD-Info. Another activist, Mikhail Sosin, had his laptop, system unit, work book, external hard drive and flash drive confiscated. The activist himself told OVD-Info about this.

Thus, as of 11 o’clock, at least 12 searches were known in St. Petersburg.

11:50 Postcard reports about another search in St. Petersburg: in the apartment of the parents of Viasna activist Konstantin Pokhilchuk.

15:30 Galina Ageeva clarified that searches were not carried out in her absence: police officers only presented a court order for a search and interviewed residents on the topic of rallies.

“Postcard” reports that during interrogation at the Main Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs as part of a criminal case about “blocking roads,” Svetlana Utkina was asked about her acquaintance with some activists.

The names mentioned are: Daniil Ken (head of the Teachers' Alliance) and Vasily Kunin (mundep), who had already had searches on January 31, Irina Fatyanova (head of Navalny's headquarters in St. Petersburg), Timofey Tumashevich (journalist for Activatika and activist for Vesna) , Alexander Vereshchagin (Vesna activist), Alexey Barich (member of the decision-maker), Marina Matsapulina (member of the Civil Society).

The actions of the St. Petersburg security forces are similar to the work of their colleagues in Moscow: when Moscow activists were interrogated in a criminal case for violating sanitary and epidemiological standards, they were asked to “recognize” the names of people, some of whom were then also detained in this case.

16:30 Anna Mezhova was also searched in the morning. All this time she was not in touch and only recently was able to contact her relatives, reports the Detentions St. Petersburg telegram channel.

17:35 Fontanka, with reference to the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of St. Petersburg, reports that searches were carried out at 30 addresses as part of the case of “blocking roads” at the rally on January 23.

“Currently, a large amount of portable equipment and propaganda materials, including those directed against the highest bodies of state power, have been seized,” the department said.

The information about the searches at Ageeva's addresses was clarified, and information was added that Parkina was at home during the search, where she became ill.

• On April 26, 2017, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office recognized a number of organizations associated with Mikhail Khodorkovsky as undesirable. The list includes OR Otkrytaya Rossia, Open Russia Civic Movement, Open Russia and Institute of Modern Russia, Inc, registered in the UK, registered in the USA. Russian authorities believe that the Open Russia movement is related to these legal entities, and therefore is also an undesirable organization on the territory of the Russian Federation.
• On January 31, information appeared about the initiation of a criminal case in St. Petersburg under the article on rendering vehicles or means of communication unusable (Article 267 of the Criminal Code). That day, searches took place at at least nine addresses.
• On February 6, early in the morning local time, security forces came with searches to activists in Vladivostok; at least five visits by security forces are known as part of a criminal case for blocking roads (Article 267 of the Criminal Code) at the rally on January 23 in support of Alexei Navalny.
• In connection with the detention of Alexei Navalny, a series of protests took place throughout Russia. The largest protests took place on Saturday, January 23, and Sunday, January 31. Security forces reacted harshly to the protests: on January 23, more than 4,000 people were detained, and on January 31, more than 5,500 . On the day the sentence in the Yves Rocher case was changed to a real one,arrests also took place near the Moscow City Court building, including journalists.