Russian police have searched more homes of artists and performance artists as part of an investigation of Pyotr Verzilov, a member of the Pussy Riot protest group and the former publisher of the Mediazona website.
Moscow police on March 13 searched the home of artist Anatoly Osmolovsky. In the city of Perm, police searched the homes of Nailya Allakhverdiyeva, director of a local arts museum, and an unidentified performance artist.
Verzilov has been accused of high treason. In October 2023, he said he had joined the Ukrainian armed forces.
On March 12, police in the country's second-largest city, St. Petersburg, searched the home of artists Katrin Nenasheva and Natasha Chetverio. Nenasheva was taken away in a car that had no license plates.
SEE ALSO: Meduza, Russian-Language News Outlet, Says It Faced Unprecedented AttacksIn Moscow, an acquaintance of artist Filipp Kozlov, aka Philippenzo, was taken from her apartment while police also searched the homes of members of the Yav art group, artist Sasha Blot, and a member of the Party of the Dead art group, Kristina Bubentsova.
The Moscow homes of Pussy Riot protest group members Rita Flores, Olga Kurachyova, and Olga Pakhtusova were searched as well.
The mass searches came a day after the Moscow City Court overturned the verdict and sentence of Verzilov, citing procedural violations in a case of spreading "false information" about the Russian military.
Moscow police also searched the home of Verzilov's mother. The Setevyye Svobody Telegram channel reported that many of the searches were sanctioned by Moscow’s Lefortovo district court as part of an investigation into a high treason case.
There were no official reports or statements given during the searches about any high treason charges filed against Verzilov.
The searches weren't restricted to the country's two main cities.
In the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, police detained artist Ilya Mozgi for questioning, while the homes of artists Artyom Filatov and Andrei Olenev in Nizhny Novgorod and Yegor Kholtov in Ulyanovsk were also searched. Those artists were detained for questioning as well.
Police in the Volga city of Samara searched the home of artist Denis Mustafin. It was not clear whether he was detained afterward.
A lower court in Moscow sentenced Verzilov in absentia to 8 1/2 years in prison in November on a charge of distributing via the Internet fake news about Russia's armed forces involved in the invasion of Ukraine.
The Moscow City Court ruling on March 11 sent the case back for retrial.
In October last year, Verzilov, who holds Russian and Canadian citizenships, announced that he had joined the Ukrainian armed forces. He also said he has left Mediazona.