A former employee of Navalny’s Nizhny Novgorod headquarters spoke about a search for a “sanitary case”

Former Nizhny Novgorod SMM manager Evgeny Goligorov told OVD-Info that during his father’s funeral, they came to his house in the village of Vakhtan with a search for a “sanitary matter.”

Now he and his girlfriend are being taken for interrogation to the Investigative Committee in Nizhny Novgorod - this is 300 kilometers from the village. According to Goligorov, he is in the status of a witness in a criminal case for violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules (Part 1 of Article 236 of the Criminal Code).

A “sanitary case” was opened after the rally on January 23. The day before the next action on January 31, several Nizhny Novgorod activists were searched as part of this case. Now the accused are the ex-coordinator of the local headquarters, Roman Tregubov , and journalist Natatya Rezontova .

In 2019, Goligorov was searched in connection with the case. Then his accounts were blocked for 75 million rubles.

The Investigative Committee announced the initiation of the FBK case in August 2019. Initially, the investigation claimed that the oppositionists laundered 1 billion rubles, but later the amount was reduced to 75 million rubles. According to FBK, the investigators' claims prompted donations in bitcoins.