March of Millions to Go On Despite Raids, Subpoenas

Organizers of a mass march planned to take place in Moscow tomorrow have held an emergency meeting in light of a series of raids on their apartments, Kasparov.ru reports.

According to Solidarity member Sergei Davidis, the organizational committee of the March of Millions concluded that the march would go on as planned, regardless of the actions of security officials.

Since Ilya Yashin was scheduled to be one of leaders of the march but may now be unable to attend because of a subpoena, the committee named State Duma Deputy Dmitri Gudkov from A Just Russia as his replacement.

According to Interfax, Russia’s Investigative Committee issued subpoenas to march organizers Aleksei Navalny, Sergei Udaltsov, and Ksenia Sobchak in addition to Yashin, ordering them to appear on at 11 am on Tuesday to “undergo investigation” in regards to riots in Moscow during an mass opposition protest on May 6 that ended with about 650 arrests and 47 injured activists.

The subpoenas were issued after investigative units raided (or attempted to raid, as some residents weren’t home) 10 Moscow apartments, purportedly in connection with the riots. In addition to the aforementioned activists, the apartment of Voina art activist Pyotr Verzilov was also raided. A number of computers, iPads, cellphones, and other materials were confiscated from Navalny and Udaltsov, as was Navalny’s t-shirt that read “United Russia is the Party of Swindlers and Thieves” and an item from Udaltsov with the Left Front logo on it.

Police also took 1.5 million euros from Sobchak’s apartment, on the vague basis that “the source that the funds were acquired from has not been established.” Sobchak was not one of the organizers of the May 6 protests.

The office of the Foundation for the Fight Against Corruption, created by Navalny, was also raided, as was the apartment of the parents of his fiancé.

A trio of Duma deputies from A Just Russia compared the raids to Soviet tactics of repression. “We feel that this might provoke an irreversible rise in tension in society and close the path to the constructive evolution of the political system in Russia,” said the statement released by Gennady Gudkov, Dmitri Gudkov and Ilya Ponomarev.