The associate professor of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University and opposition politician Mikhail Lobanov was searched. The pro-Kremlin RIA Novosti published a video showing several security officials breaking down the door to the apartment in Moscow where Lobanov and his wife Alexandra Zapolskaya live. According to RIA, searches are carried out immediately in a number of regions "at the associates of the former deputy Ilya Ponomarev." Lobanov himself at 06:33 (Moscow time) wrote “I woke up. They're breaking down our door." After that, he and Zapolskaya stopped communicating. As Lobanov's colleague Alexander Zamyatin told The Insider, a lawyer is not allowed to see them.
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.
