Russian security agents on Friday raided the home of the editor of an online investigative journal that recently published articles on the security services, his editorial team said.
Operatives of the FSB security agency searched the apartment of Roman Anine, his Vajnye istorii investigative news website colleagues said.
They cited his lawyer saying that Anine was targeted in connection with inquiries into “violation of privacy by abusing his professional functions,” an offense punishable by up to four years in prison.
He was due to go with his lawyers to talk to the committee in charge of criminal inquiries, according to media reports.
Anine, 34, had previously worked for Novaya Gazeta, the most reputable opposition newspaper in Russia.
Novaya Gazeta editorial board said the case was linked to an investigation opened in 2016, following the publication by Anine suggesting that the wife of one of the most powerful men in the country, Igor Sechin, owned a yacht valued at $100 million.
The newspaper was found guilty of defamation after Sechin filed a complaint about the report.
“What is happening now to Roman Anine is a story of revenge,” the paper said in a statement.
Created last year, Vajnye istorii has most of its editorial staff based in Latvia with correspondents in Russia.
The website recently published articles on possible links between the FSB and organized crime, and others on torture in Russian prisons and surveillance of the imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
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