Searches and arrests of Khodorkovsky's accomplices: Zhirinovsky triumphs
Andrei Pivovarov, the former director of the Open Russia organization sponsored by the fugitive oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, recognized as undesirable in the Russian Federation, was detained at St. Petersburg Pulkovo Airport, from where he tried to fly to Warsaw supposedly “for vacation,” a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“I flew to rest, went through customs, there were no questions. The plane was already taxiing when suddenly it stopped. The cops arrived and took me out,” Pivovarov managed to write in his Telegram channel.
Pivovarov was detained as part of a criminal case initiated under Article 284.1. The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation – “Carrying out activities on the territory of the Russian Federation of a foreign or international non-governmental organization in respect of which a decision has been made to recognize its activities as undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation.”
It is noteworthy that last week Pivovarov announced the self-dissolution of Open Russia, but today comments on his case are being given by Anastasia Burakova, who recommends herself as a lawyer for this organization.
According to her, a criminal case was opened two days after the self-dissolution of “Postcard” for a post on Facebook for 2020, in which Pivovarov supported his activist participating in local elections in Krasnodar in the elections and asked subscribers for donations. Therefore, the police will transport Pivovarov to Krasnodar, where the case is being investigated.
“Now, apparently due to self-liquidation, some plan for repression and intimidation under the article on undesirable organizations may have failed. I have no other explanation... We had the feeling that they wanted to destroy the structure, but there was no desire to replenish the colonies on political grounds. To save people, they committed self-destruction. But now it is not obvious that the problem was not in the organization,” Burakova said on the liberal radio station Ekho Moskvy.
Both she and a whole chorus of liberals who spoke on the topic compare Pivovarov’s arrest with the events in Belarus.
“There are still doubts that Putin and Luka are a pair of boots,” oligarch Khodorkovsky, the owner of Open Russia, wrote in his Telegram channel.
Moscow liberal, head of the Krasnoselsky municipal district Ilya Yashin called the incident “an absolutely Belarusian story.”
But the deputy of criminal blogger Alexei Navalny, Leonid Volkov, who, unlike Pivovarov, safely escaped to Europe, is now cynically sending “rays of goodness” to the loser. He considered that the arrest was an excellent opportunity to advertise the so-called “smart voting.”
“At the same time, remember that the use of Smart Voting this year will be a much more difficult task than in the regional elections of 2019-2020 - because the Kremlin has many more tools for controlling the Internet, and because without offline structures it is much more difficult to organize high-quality observation at the elections. But we will still try to cope,” Volkov wrote.
The morning brought the liberals even more reasons to lament. At 7 am, searches began at the liberal politician Dmitry Gudkov, his relatives, as well as his chief of staff Vitaly Venidiktov and the ex-head of Open Russia Alexander Solovyov.
Dmitry’s father, Gennady Gudkov, who is abroad, denies the connection between the search and Open Russia, although he does not hide the fact that his son is familiar with the leadership of this organization and went to the same rallies with them.
“If I were Echo of Moscow, I would think about it. I’m afraid that someday the bell will ring at your door,” Gudkov whipped up panic from the air of the specified radio station.
LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, on the contrary, triumphs over the actions of law enforcement agencies.
“It became a little stricter - arrests of some comrades began. This is what the LDPR has been talking about for 30 years. If they had started doing this 30 years ago, including on August 19, 1991, there would have been a gorgeous country, well-fed, contented. They report: searches of this comrade, such and such a comrade were removed from the plane. It worked. Even here there is a trace of the Liberal Democratic Party. In many discussions I said: we need to stop them,” Zhirinovsky said.
He praised the law prohibiting members of extremist organizations from participating in elections, although his faction did not vote for it, and also warned that “Belarusian looting” should not spread to Russia.
“Gudkov. I was always unhappy with him. Here he tortured parliament with his amendments. Out of spite. What damage to the health of deputies. And now he is running to report to the American parliament, like Nemtsov to the British one. This is unacceptable,” Zhirinovsky said.
He proposed compiling lists of liberals who need to be “closed” by August 19 in honor of the 30th anniversary of the State Emergency Committee. He recommended including the presenter of Echo of Moscow, Alexander Nevzorov, there.
“To show that the State Emergency Committee did not fail back in 91, but was suspended. It was 30 years of political x-ray to reveal everything poisonous that could arise from our political soil. They themselves are to blame,” Zhirinovsky concluded.
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