St. Petersburg-based lawyer Ivan Pavlov told reporters that his Moscow hotel room was raided on Friday morning and he was summoned to Russia's Investigative Committee for interrogation as a suspect in a criminal case. Disclosing information related to a police investigation is an punishable by a fine, community service or detention of up to three months.
Pavlov said the accusations against him were connected to his defence of Ivan Safronov, a former Russian journalist charged with treason in a case that has been widely seen as politically motivated. He said he was targeted because he shared information about the case with the media. Safronov's former colleagues alleged that authorities may have sought revenge for his reporting that exposed Russian military incidents and opaque arms trade deals. Safronov has remained in pre-trial detention since July.
Pavlov maintained his innocence and said he considered the case against him "revenge" for his work on cases investigated by the FSB.
It is important to keep the world advised of what the Russians are doing to Navalny, his lawyer and any others who are not bowing to Putin.
Russia is a dictatorship