Police also searched numerous offices and other apartments for people with Navaln connections. Zhdanov later explained that the raid was related to the authorities’ suspicion of violating epidemiological measures.

Today, the police have also arrived at the apartment where Navalny’s wife, Julia, currently lives. According to TV Dožď, the units also got in by breaking the door.

Shortly before, Zhdanov posted a video in which security personnel listen to Navalna’s apartment, while the activist’s wife asks them to wait a quarter of an hour for her lawyer to arrive. Odanov warned that the authorities also raided the offices of the Anti-Corruption Fund. Lawyer Vladimir Voronin said on Twitter that the lawyer for Lyubov Sobolova Fund did not miss the house search.

Zhdanov stated that the inspection of Navalny’s apartment is carried out by employees of the Ministry of the Interior on the basis of an article in the Criminal Code dealing with violations of epidemiological rules that will cause or may cause mass infection. The Interfax news agency reported that the Interior Ministry had previously been informed that it had started, among other things, criminal proceedings against people who participated in unauthorized demonstrations across the country on Saturday. Reuters said that the demonstrations calling for Navalny’s release in Moscow alone attracted about 40,000 people. The arrested activist called them himself.

According to the OVD-Info server, which monitors police interventions, Russian security forces have arrested nearly 4,000 people in connection with the Saturday demonstrations.

The court sentenced Navalny to 30 days in prison after the activist returned to Moscow from treatment in Germany. There he recovered from nerve gas poisoning from a group of beginners. The attempt to poison Navalny is attributed to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the intelligence of the Federal Security Service, and the Kremlin denies the allegations. The Russian Naval Service accuses Navalny of systematically violating the suspended sentence imposed on him for alleged embezzlement.

Oleg Navalene was released from prison in 2018. He was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for alleged embezzlement. Navalny’s supporters claim the punishment should have put pressure on Alexei’s brother and other opposition leaders. Alexei Navalny was given a suspended prison sentence in the same case.