Police Search Navalny's Moscow Flats, Office Ahead Of Fresh Rallies

Moscow, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Jan, 2021 ) :Russian authorities ramped up pressure on the opposition Wednesday, searching the apartments and offices of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny ahead of new protests called for the weekend to demand his release.

Ivan Zhdanov, the head of Navalny's FBK Anti-Corruption Foundation, said police were searching flats linked to Navalny and the foundation's offices for alleged violations of coronavirus restrictions.

Russia's Interior Ministry said Wednesday it had launched a criminal probe into the violation of sanitary and epidemiological measures during a Moscow protest that saw thousands rally in support of Navalny on Saturday.

The ministry's spokeswoman Irina Volk said the organisers and participants of the rally "created a threat of the spread of the novel coronavirus infection".

Zhdanov said on Twitter that Navalny's wife Yulia was at one of the apartments and posted a video from inside where loud hammering could be heard outside the door.

"They are not letting in my lawyer. They broke my door in," Yulia Navalnaya yelled to journalists from out of her apartment window, an AFP journalist reported.