Right now, searches are being carried out not only at the home of Anti-Corruption Foundation director Roman Rubanov, but even at the homes of his parents and sister, who live in the Moscow region.
As usual, it’s investigators for especially important cases from the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee.
As usual, the search (and the guaranteed subsequent seizure of phones and computers) is being justified by the “stolen poster case,” which even the prosecutor’s office has objected to: there can be no criminal case here; it was an ownerless picture on a fence near the train station, worth 100 rubles.
As usual, everyone understands why the search is happening: they are trying to find out which officials we are investigating, trying to stop our work and intimidate the broader public, trying to halt preparations for the Anti-Crisis March “Spring”, in which the Anti-Corruption Foundation plays a key role.
The popular argument that, if you add up the cost of the investigators, FSB officers, and police involved in the case, and then add the value of the confiscated equipment, the total would be about a brazillion times greater than the value of the “picture,” is actually completely wrong.
Bastrykin’s Investigative Committee and Bortnikov’s FSB have been turned into a single Ministry for the Protection of Corruption.
And they spare no material or human resources to protect it.
They probably even hold meetings about it. Putin at the head of the table, with Yakunin, Volodin, Timchenko, Rotenberg, Sechin, and the rest. “Agenda item: someone is interfering with our stealing, and that is extremism. Resolution: instruct the Investigative Committee and the FSB to take immediate measures to protect our right to steal.”
P.S. How many times do you think Serdyukov’s home was searched? Not the “cottage he had previously occupied,” but his actual residence.
The correct answer: not once.