The security forces detained Mikhail Lobanov, associate professor of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University, who was searched in connection with the case of former State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev. This was reported to TASS by lawyer Tatyana Okushko.
“Lobanov was detained, put into a car and taken away from his apartment. I still don’t know where exactly he is being taken and what his procedural status is, now I am trying to find out,” she said.
The lawyer was not allowed to search. Okushko told Sota that a law enforcement officer during the search told her that Lobanov would be taken to the Ramenki police department, but when she arrived there, he was not there. Where he is now is unknown.
The security forces came to search the home of Lobanov and his wife on May 18 early in the morning. They broke down the door to the apartment, after which they put everyone on the floor. RIA Novosti published a video in which one of the security forces beats a woman lying on the floor with her face on the floor. Presumably, this is Lobanov's wife.
At 08:51 (Moscow time), an appeal to the media was published on Lobanov’s Telegram channel: “Some independent media are already writing that searches are being carried out at Mikhail’s place as Ilya Ponomarev’s ‘comrade-in-arms’. This is incorrect information: Mikhail does not know and does not have any contacts with Ponomarev, whose criminal case is used by the security forces to legalize searches. Yesterday, "screenshots" of Mikhail's correspondence with Ponomarev appeared on pro-Kremlin channels – this is an absurd fake that every sane person can appreciate for himself. Mikhail is being persecuted for his political activities and open stance. He has nothing to do with Ilya Ponomarev and any of his projects.”
In addition to Lobanov, the security forces came with searches to the ex-candidate for deputy of the State Duma Galina Filchenko, the former Mundep in the Akademichesky district of Moscow, Nodari Khananashvili, and to the editor-in-chief of the St. Petersburg edition of Ladoga, Alexander Kalinin. Like Lobanov, the security forces charge them with cooperation with Ponomarev and call the opposition members of the "Congress of People's Deputies." The event was recognized in Russia as "undesirable".
In December, the security forces already came with searches in the case of "fake" about the Russian army, initiated against Ponomarev, to politicians and journalists in seven regions of Russia. Then Lobanov was beaten and robbed right in his apartment, after which he was arrested for 15 days. Associate Professor of Moscow State University spent the New Year in a special detention center.
