Police in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan have carried out a search at the home of a journalist known for his regular protests against political repression, local media reported Monday, citing his relatives.
Authorities raided the home of Idris Yusupov in the regional capital of Makhachkala early Monday morning, according to the news outlet Kavkaz Uzel.
It is not yet clear what charges Yusupov may face or whether he was arrested during the search.
Authorities seized his personal electronic devices and took him in for questioning, according to the independent Moscow-based reporter Vasily Polonsky, who did not specify the source of the information.
Novoye Delo, a Dagestan-based news outlet where Yusupov was a contributing writer between 2015 and 2021, said “Not once have we heard him say anything radical or aggressive against representatives of any confession,” suggesting that Monday’s search may be linked to anti-Israeli riots that broke out in the majority-Muslim region the previous night.
“Knowing Idris, we assume he would speak out in the defense of a Jew who was oppressed or treated unfairly,” Novoye Delo said.
Polonsky said he had spoken with Yusupov on Sunday night, adding that the journalist was at his home at the time and not at Makhachkala International Airport, where the anti-Israeli rioting had erupted.
Yusupov is among the organizers of weekly protest actions in support of independent journalist Abdulmumin Gadzhiyev, who in September was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison for terrorism.
In September 2022, Yusupov was detained at a solo picket against Vladimir Putin’s “partial” mobilization of some 300,000 military reservists.
