Press Release, October 10, 2013

Today, on October 10, 2013, law enforcement officers attempted to get into the office of the Krasnodar branch of the YABLOKO party (presumably, these were officers from the Center for Combating Extremism). This happened at about 2:30 p.m. The police insisted that they needed Andrei Rudomakha, Chair of the regional branch of YABLOKO and Coordinator of the Environmental Watch on North Caucasus. The police also insisted that they had to “survey the premises”. However, Andrei Rudomakha who really was in the office in the morning went to another city at day time.

Office staff refused to let the police in, because the officers did not produce any documents required for conducting investigation or a search indoors.

After receiving a refusal to get access to the office, the law enforcement officers began to calling their bosses. During a telephone conversation one of the police officers let it slip out that the group arrived at YABLOKO’s office after receiving information from the FSB (Federal Security Service) and also as a result of a secret wiretapping of Andrei Rudomakha’s phone. The officer literally said the following, “Boss, I’m [calling] on this information. I had a telephone conversation with the guys from the “gray building”, they claim that the billing comes from here… He’s here… On the FSB information… But we are assured that the citizen is in Anapa. I called the FSB OFICER. He assures that the billing of the phone call which was made comes from this address”.

The police left the entranceway of YABLOKO’s office at around 2:45 p.m. promising to return shortly with some paper which would give them grounds to break the door.

The reasons behind such a strange search for Andrei Rudomakha are unknown. Rudomakha has not received any summons of subpoenas from the FSB. Most likely, the actions by police and the FSB were caused by Rudomakha’s environmental and human rights activities, as he is head of a public organisation (Environmental Watch on North Caucasus) plenty of problems fighting against different environmentally unfriendly projects supported by the leaders of the Russian state, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The YABLOKO party will try to find out what questions the Federal Security Service has to the head of YABLOKO’s Krasnodar regional branch, and will seek to investigate the grounds behind wiretapping of his phone by the FSB.

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