Opposition Candidate for State Duma detained in Moscow

MOSCOW (rferl): Police in Moscow have detained a municipal lawmaker from the opposition Yabloko party who announced last month that she intends to run in September’s elections for the State Duma.

Ketevan Kharaidze was detained late on June 17 after police searched her apartment, according to her election campaign chief Yekaterina Uspenskaya.

Uspenskaya said on June 18 that before being taken away for questioning, Kharaidze told her neighbor that police had confiscated her telephone, a computer, and two 5,000 ruble ($70) banknotes found in a pocket of her coat that Kharaidze said she had not put there.

Authorities so far have not announced the reason for the search or the detainment of the opposition candidate.

According to OVD-Info group, which monitors the detention of political protesters and activists, Kharaidze’s lawyer tried unsuccessfully for several hours to meet with her client.

A few hours before Kharaidze’s detainment, police in St. Petersburg detained municipal lawyer Maksim Reznik on illegal drugs charges after searching his home, his summer house, and his mother’s apartment.

Reznik had previously taken part in events to support political prisoners in Russia.

Reznik has said that he had been threatened recently by unknown men who’d said he would be targeted in a drug investigation unless he publicly criticized the jailed opposition politician and Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny.

Reznik’s arrest came after his nephew, Ivan Dorofeyev, was charged with distributing illegal drugs.

Dorofeyev’s mother says investigators pressured her son to testify against Reznik.