Navalny Associate Says Police Searching Kremlin Critic's Apartment

Police are searching the apartment of jailed Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny, according to Ivan Zhdanov, the director of the opposition politician’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK).

“The apartment of Aleksei Navalny is being searched. There are lots of “heavies” [security officers] wearing masks. They started to break down the door. Oleg Navalny [Aleksei’s brother] is in the apartment. We do not know why or on what basis they are conducting the search,” Zhdanov said in a tweet.

Navalny was arrested on January 17 upon returning to Russia from Germany, where he had been recovering from a near-fatal poisoning by a military-grade nerve agent in August that he accuses Putin of ordering.

A court later extended his detention for 30 days to allow for a different court to decide in early February on whether to convert into real prison time the suspended 3 1/2 year sentence that Navalny served in an embezzlement case, which is widely considered trumped up and politically motivated.