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Russian police raided the homes of at least 10 leading oppositionfigures today in a move widely perceived by the opposition as anintimidation tactic on the eve of what organizers are billing asthe biggest-ever anti-Putin rally, scheduled to take place tomorrowon Moscow's central Pushkin Square. Those whose apartments were searched included anticorruptionblogger Alexei Navalny, who live-Tweeted the raid on his apartmentby more than a dozen police. He said they refused to allow hislawyer into the building for several hours while they went througheverything, hauling away all his computer equipment and flashdrives, children's photos, and even a T-shirt that depicts aroguish-looking bear looting a map of Russia, a picture of which hesent out via Instagram. (The symbol of the ruling party, UnitedRussia, is a bear.) Others whose homes were hit included Solidarnost activist IlyaYashin, left-wing leader Sergei Udaltsov, and even TVcelebrity-cum-opposition leader Ksenia Sobchak. A spokesman for Russia's Interior Ministry, Vladimir Markin, toldjournalists the searches were connected to an ongoing investigationof "disorders" that took place during a May 6 opposition rally actually an attempt to stage a sit-down strike on a bridge by atiny minority of protesters on the eve of President VladimirPutin's inauguration, which resulted in scores of injuries and morethan 600 arrests when riot police charged a mostly peaceful crowdwith tear gas and batons. "All in all, the investigation has more than 10 searches atdifferent sites planned," Mr. Markin said. "Individuals whose homeshave been searched have been summoned to the investigativecommittee s office for legal procedures on June 12." But opposition sympathizers point out that some of those targetedby police today, including Navalny and Udaltsov, have alreadyserved time in prison over the past month as punishment for theiralleged role in the May 6 disturbances. The main evidence used toconvict them was the fact that their names appeared on the list oforganizers who obtained the permit for the rally. One protest leader still at large, journalist Olga Romanova, usedher Facebook page today as a clearing house for all the latestinformation on the police raids. "News from the battlefront: policeare besieging the home of Alexei Sakhnin in (the Moscow-area townof) Zhukovsky," she posted around noon. Later she wrote that policearrived in force at the Moscow apartment of liberal PARNAS partyleader Boris Nemtsov, but he had apparently flown the coop and wasnowhere to be found. In the evening she announced that police wereraiding the home of Navalny's wife's parents. "This is all an obvious attempt to frighten people away fromturning up at the rally, and to put psychological pressure on theactivists," says Boris Kagarlitsky, a long time left-wing activistand director of the independent Institute for Globalization andSocial Movement Studies. "The atmosphere is much more tense than itappears on the surface. It may well be that the authorities are notunited in their views on how to deal with the situation, and thepopulation is angry. The way the police are behaving is gettingpeople angrier." Last week, Russia's State Duma rushed through a law thatdrastically increases fines and other penalties for organizers ofprotest meetings and for ordinary participants charged with anykind of infraction. The law whipped through two Duma readings, wasapproved by the Federation Council (upper house of parliament) andsigned by Putin in just three days. (The main features of the lawcan be seen here.) Tomorrow's planned demonstration is the latest in a series thatbegan last December to specifically protest against allegedelectoral fraud, but more fundamentally appears to be animated by afull spectrum of middle-class grievances against bureaucraticunaccountability, political autocracy, corruption, and the lack oflegal equality in post-Soviet Russia. Most of those who come out to the rallies do not seem to be led, oreven inspired, by the opposition leaders who were the objects oftoday's raids. Most past rallies have been largely self-organizedthrough social media like Facebook and the Russian-languageVKontakte, so it appears likely that today's show of police force which was extensively reported on state-run TV channels wasaimed at influencing the public mood. "I'm afraid we can see a lot of arrests [at tomorrow's rally]because the authorities have not moved fast enough to adapt to thesituation," Grigory Tyumanov, a correspondent with the Moscow dailyKommersant wrote in a blog post today. "On the contrary, thegovernment seems to be doing everything it can to aggravate thesituation. If they didn't employ repressive methods, thesedemonstrations would probably fade away. But the strategists in theKremlin are making sure that the protest leaders will look likemartyrs.". The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as China Wireless Camera Scanner , TRI-BAND Repeater, and more. For more , please visit High Power Jammer today!
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