Russian police have carried out searches at the liberal Yabloko party’s regional branch in the northwestern city of Pskov, just weeks after authorities labeled its chairman a “foreign agent,” the branch said Wednesday.
Police confiscated office equipment, personal laptops and cellphones belonging to employees and activists present at Yabloko’s Pskov regional office.
The party said the search was prompted by regional chairman Lev Shlosberg allegedly failing to refer to a “certain” organization by its official “terrorist” status during a live stream on his YouTube channel.
“According to law enforcement, during one of the streams on Grazhdanin TV, Lev Shlosberg referred to a certain terrorist organization in a negative light, but did not mention its [official terrorist] status,” the party wrote in a statement on Telegram.
The regional affiliate of the U.S.-funded RFE/RL news outlet reported that the organization in question was the anti-Kremlin Freedom of Russia Legion, which was designated a terrorist organization by Russia’s Supreme Court in March.
Law enforcement told the party that administrative charges of “abusing the use of mass media” had been opened against Shlosberg.
Last month, Russia’s Justice Ministry designated Shlosberg — one of the few opposition politicians remaining in Russia who has not been imprisoned — as a “foreign agent” due to his stance against the war in Ukraine.