News digest for July 1

While Vladimir Putin was signing a law toughening responsibility for cooperation with "undesirable organizations", the security forces came to search the headquarters of the opposition candidate for the State Duma. We tell the main thing about political pressure for July 1.

• The premises of the election headquarters of Oleg Stepanov, the former coordinator of the Moscow headquarters of Alexei Navalny, were searched. Law enforcement officers seized laptops, phones and a projector. The investigative measure was carried out as part of a criminal case on the creation of a non-profit organization that infringes on the personality and rights of citizens.
• Vladimir Putin signed a bill toughening the responsibility for cooperation with an "undesirable organization". Persons who financed such an organization face from one to five years in prison, and those who directed its activities on the territory of Russia - from two to six years. Participants of the "undesirable organization" will face fines from 300 to 500 thousand rubles, and in case of repeated violation - a punishment of up to four years in prison.
• Municipal deputy Ketevan Kharaidze ended her hunger strike. At the moment, the politician is in a pre-trial detention center - a preventive measure was chosen for her as part of a fraud case. Kharaidze insists that the criminal prosecution is connected with her desire to run for the State Duma.
• The person involved in the "Moscow case" Sergei Surovtsev was transferred to the pre-trial detention center in Ryazan. In April, the court decided to replace the prisoner's place of serving his sentence from a general regime colony to a colony-settlement. In December 2019, he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison under the article on the use of violence against a government official.
• Vladimir Suvorov, 75, a Jehovah's Witness from Chelyabinsk, was sentenced to six years' probation. He was found guilty of organizing the activities of an extremist organization. Earlier, under the article on participation in the activities of such an organization, his wife Valentina Suvorova was conditionally sentenced to two years.
• The journalist of the Dagestan "Chernovik" Abdulmumin Gadzhiev was kept in custody until the end of October. The preventive measure was also extended for two other defendants in the case, Abubakar Rizvanov and Kemal Tambiev. According to investigators, the defendants transferred money to a preacher associated with ISIS.
• In Tatarstan, a man was detained who allegedly headed the local Hizb ut-Tahrir cell. The FSB believes that he recruited Russian Muslims and spread "a militant Islamist terrorist ideology combined with intolerance towards other religions." Another defendant in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case, Crimean Tatar Dzhemil Gafarov, is refused to be issued documents on a serious state of health necessary for transfer from a pre-trial detention center to house arrest.
• Ivan Punegov, a person involved in the “palace case”, was transferred to the Kresty pre-trial detention center. Previously, the accused under the article on the use of violence against a policeman was in the Gorelovo pre-trial detention center. The case against Punegov was opened because of the action “Freedom to Navalny!”.
• In the Tambov region , a man was attacked who was preparing an appeal to Vladimir Putin because of the construction of a landfill. And in Samara, unidentified persons set fire to the car of an eco-activist opposing a landfill in one of the districts of the city.
• In St. Petersburg, proceedings have been terminated on two administrative cases brought against detainees on January 31 during a rally in support of Alexei Navalny. Both cases were dismissed due to lack of corpus delicti.