The United States is concerned about searches in the homes of Russian opposition leaders on the eve of their March of Millions, due Tuesday and a new law on rallies, the U.S. State Department said.
“The United States is deeply concerned by the apparent harassment of Russian political opposition figures on the eve of the planned demonstrations on June 12th,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Monday.
“This follows searches of opposition leaders’ homes and several arrests in connection with the May 6th demonstration in Moscow, and also follows the passage of the new law in Russia that imposes disproportionate penalties for violations of rules concerning public demonstrations,” Nuland told reporters.
The homes of Russian opposition figures anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny, Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov, Solidarity movement head Ilya Yashin and TV star and socialite-turned-opposition activist Ksenia Sobchak were searched by police on Monday.
Investigators said the searches were legal and took place as part of a probe into the May 6 riots. Critics accused authorities of cracking down on Russian protest movement leaders.
“Opposition leaders organizing the June 12th demonstration are being called in for police questioning, which is scheduled to begin one hour prior to the demonstration, clearly designed to take them off the streets during the demonstration,” Nuland also said.
“Taken together, these measures raise serious questions about the arbitrary use of law enforcement to stifle free speech and free assembly,” she said.
The March of Millions in downtown Moscow may bring together some 50,000 people to protest against the rule of President Vladimir Putin.
Over 400 people were arrested and scores injured as the May 6 rally against Putin’s rule turned violent when protesters briefly broke through police lines in a bid to take their protest to the Kremlin walls. Putin’s opponents accuse him of corruption and curtailing political freedoms.
Navalny, a key figure in Russia's protest movement against Putin, made his name as an anti-corruption blogger before becoming the figurehead of this winter's unprecedented mass anti-government rallies.
Putin signed off on Friday on a controversial new law that increases the maximum fines for protest-related offenses, allows judges to sentence protesters to community service and bars them from wearing masks. He said society should “protect itself from radicalism,” adding he did not think the law to be too harsh.
The law was proposed by deputies from the ruling United Russia party in the wake of clashes between police and demonstrators at the downtown Moscow rally on the eve of Putin’s May 7 inauguration as president for a third term. It was then fast-tracked through parliament ahead of another planned anti-Putin rally in Moscow, due June 12.
The Kremlin’s human rights council said earlier it would ask Putin to veto the law, which has also been criticized by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said the law is “in line” with European norms. The opposition said the law is repressive.
