St. Petersburg politician and former deputy Sergei Gulyaev left Russia after a search that took place in his apartment in Sestroretsk on May 18. Zaks.ru reports this.

The politician said that during the search, the security forces first showed him documents according to which a criminal case was opened because of his book “Sunset in Brown,” and then left a copy of the resolution, which indicated that the search was carried out for connections with Ilya Ponomarev.

“I hope my lawyer will find out soon what they are going to present in the end,” Gulyaev added.

On May 18, searches of opposition politicians were carried out in Moscow and St. Petersburg because of the case of oppositionist Ilya Ponomarev about “fakes” about the Russian army and participation in the “Congress of People’s Deputies,” which the Prosecutor General’s Office recognized as an “undesirable” organization.

“Sunset in Brown” is a fiction book about the fate of military personnel who participate in the war in Ukraine. The presentation of the book was supposed to take place in mid-May as part of the International Book Salon, but it was removed from the presentation. Gulyaev reported that his work was being checked under an article about discrediting the Russian army.
Searches in the Ponomarev case took place at the homes of politicians, activists and journalists in different regions on September 8 and December 29 , 2022.

Politician Sergei Gulyaev left Russia after the search