Russian police have been searching the apartments of the protest leaders who organized a rally in Moscow's Bolotnaya Square in early May that ended in violent clashes between protesters and police, a spokesman for Russia's Prosecutor-General's Office said on Monday.
"In particular, these measures are being taken in relation to Alexei Navalny, Sergei Udaltsov, Ilya Yashin and others. Overall, the investigation plans to hold at least a dozen searches today," Vladimir Markin was quoted by Russia's state media as saying.
The searches come a day before the Opposition plans to hold a new 'March of Millions' in downtown Moscow that may bring together some 50,000 people to protest the rule of President Vladimir Putin.
Over 400 people were arrested and scores injured as the May 6 anti-Putin rally turned violent when protesters briefly broke through police lines in a bid to take their protest to the Kremlin walls. Putin's detractors accuse him of corruption and curtailing political freedoms.
Navalny, a key figure in the movement against Putin, made his name as an anti-corruption blogger before becoming the figurehead of this winter's unprecedented mass anti-government rallies. The Opposition alleges that Putin won the presidential election by vote rigging.
by RTT Staff Writer
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