Police in Russia have searched the homes of several politicians and a journalist who allegedly have ties with fugitive former lawmaker Ilya Ponomaryov, who currently resides in Ukraine.
On May 18, police searched the homes of opposition politician and Moscow State University docent, Mikhail Lobanov, Moscow opposition municipal lawmakers Galina Filchenko and Nodari Khananashvili, and the chief editor of the Ladioga.ru website Aleksandr Kalinin in St. Petersburg.
Lobanov wrote on Telegram that police broke down his apartment door early in the morning.
The OVD-Info human rights group said Lobanov's lawyer was not allowed to be present during the search, adding that Lobanov, who insists that he does not know Ponomaryov, was detained after the search.
The SOTA Telegram channel published pictures of a door forcibly removed from an apartment, saying the scene was of Lobanov's home after the search.
Ponomaryov told the Agentstvo Telegram channel that he does not know Lobanov and Khananashvili, and had never talked directly to Kalinin.
Meanwhile, the TASS news agency quoted law enforcement officials as saying that the searches are related to a probe against Ponomaryov and his group, the Congress of People's Deputies, created in Poland last year. They added that the raids were conducted in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novgorod, and other towns and cities.
It is the third wave of raids on the homes of Russian journalists and politicians allegedly linked to Ponomaryov since September.
Ilya Ponomaryov (file photo)
After Russia launched its ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ponomaryov joined Ukraine's territorial defense group and created two YouTube channels -- February's Morning and Rospartizan (Russian Guerilla), through which he has called on Russian citizens to be armed and fight against the authorities at home.
Russia's Investigative Committee launched a probe against Ponomaryov, accusing him of discrediting Russia's armed forces.
Ponomaryov, 47, was the lone lawmaker in the parliament's lower chamber, the State Duma, who voted against Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
He fled Russia for the United States in 2014 and later moved to Ukraine, where he has lived since then.