Police in Moscow raided the office of the Open Russia political movement and detained one person late on Wednesday after the organization aired a live feed with founder and exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Russia blacklisted the pro-democracy NGO in 2017 as an “undesirable organization,” a label that banned its activities and places its employees at risk of fines and incarceration. Khodorkovsky, once the richest man in Russia, was released from prison in 2013 after a 10-year sentence that he claimed was “retribution for financing political parties that opposed Putin.”
Khodorkovsky’s MBKh Media news website reported that a participant had been detained for refusing to give a testimony.
The OVD-Info police-monitoring website said the detained participant, Fatima Aleyeva, faced charges of disobeying police orders. All other participants were reportedly released after giving testimony to police.
Open Russia coordinator Polina Nemirovskaya said police arrived at the video conference after being tipped off about an unspecified offense.
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