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.
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.
