Russian police raid Alexei Navalny's anti-corruption foundation in New Year crackdown on opposition

Russian authorities on Thursday stepped up the pressure on the country’s opposition by raiding the office of a protest leader and his team.

Alexei Navalny, who has been the driving force behind major anti-government protests in recent years, live streamed a video from his office as law enforcement officers cut through the front door with an electric saw on Thursday morning.

A video released by Mr Navalny’s YouTube channel showed several masked masked men gather the foundation’s employee in a room with a Christmas tree and a disco ball and tell them: “Put your face to the wall! Stay where you are!” The officers then disabled CCTV cameras.

The raid on Mr Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation in Moscow was one of several this year and came just a few days after one of his allies was detained and sent off for military service at a remote Arctic base.

Both incidents appear to be the latest steps in an unusually vigorous crackdown on opposition movements by the Kremlin.

Mr Navalny, who made his name thanks to investigations into official corruption, said on Thursday that the raid was timed to disrupt his weekly YouTube show, which was to be streamed live in the evening.

“They clearly chose this day because I have a show tonight,” tweeted Mr Navalny, whose show last week garnered more than 1.4 million views on YouTube.

Police and investigators have raided Mr Navalny’s offices several times this year. Each time, they would seize the team’s equipment including cameras used for streaming YouTube shows.

Mr Navalny’s foundation has ask supporters to donate money to buy new equipment to replace items the investigators seized and failed to return.

Leonid Volkov, one of Mr Navalny’s key allies, on Thursday described the raid as a “robbery.” Several hours later, he said that the bank account that the foundation uses for collecting donations had been blocked.

Mr Navalny and his associates joked on Thursday about the raid, which came few days before New Year's Eve, Russia's biggest annual holiday.

Nikolai Lyaskin, an employee of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, tweeted about the video of the sparks flying off the electric saw cutting through the office door with the caption: "New Year's Eve fireworks."

The raid was connected to a 2017 court ruling that ordered Mr Navalny to take down a viral YouTube video of his investigation into Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s alleged secret wealth.

The 50-minute film, which triggered a wave of nationwide protests in spring 2017 has been watched more than 32 million times, is still available on Mr Navalny’s YouTube channel.

Earlier this week an ally of Mr Navalny was detained and sent off to serve at a top secret military base in the Arctic. He had been appealing against his military conscription.

Ruslan Shaveddinov, 23, disappeared on Monday after police broke into his flat and took him in for questioning.  The military later said he had been sent to serve on Novaya Zemlya, a remote archipelago in the Arctic ocean which is home to a top secret missile defense installation and was one of the Soviet Union's main nuclear testing grounds during the Cold War.

President Vladimir Putin hit the skating ring on Red Square late Wednesday evening for an exhibition ice-hockey game with NHL stars, scoring most of his team’s goals.

Speaking at a gala performance for the country’s top officials at Moscow’s legendary Bolshoi Theatre on Thursday evening, President Putin said that Christmas and New Year’s Eve “are full of hopes of new achievements in the new year” and wished everyone happy holidays. He did not comment on the raids at Mr Navalny’s office.

Mr Putin previously dismissed suggestions that the Kremlin uses law enforcement agencies and courts to go after its opponents.

Also on Thursday, Russian special forces detained an investigative journalist for a prominent opposition newspaper.  Novaya Gazeta said investigators called on the home of its special correspondent Yulia Polukhina at 6 o’clock in the morning on Thursday and searched it for about four hours before taking Ms Polukhina for questioning.

The mother of two had no access to the lawyer and was released in the late afternoon, the paper said.

Investigators later said that Ms Polukhina, who has covered criminal activities in separatist-held eastern Ukraine, was questioned about a criminal gang from that area.