Associate Professor of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University and former candidate for State Duma deputy Mikhail Lobanov was released from the Department of the Investigative Committee for the Northern Administrative District of Moscow, where he was taken for interrogation on the morning of May 18. According to the politician's Twitter, he is in the status of a witness in a criminal case.
Lobanov was taken away after a search, which the security forces conducted in his apartment, broke down the front door. Searches were also carried out at the home of Galina Filchenko, a former candidate for the State Duma, Nodari Khananashvili, former Mundep of the Academic District of Moscow, and Alexander Kalinin, editor-in-chief of the St. Petersburg edition of Ladoga. All of them are charged with cooperation with former State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev and participation in the "Congress of People's Deputies" – a congress of Russian oppositionists abroad, one of the organizers of which was Ponomarev.
“Mikhail is not familiar with and generally does not have any contacts with Ponomarev, whose criminal case is used by the security forces to legalize searches. <…> Mikhail is being persecuted for his political activities and open position. He has nothing to do with Ilya Ponomarev and any of his projects, ”Lobanov tweeted.
In December, they already came to Lobanova with searches in the case of “fakes” about the Russian army, initiated against Ponomarev. Then the assistant professor was beaten and robbed, after which he was arrested for 15 days.