Russian investigators raid homes of Kremlin foe’s employees

Russia raised the pressure on former jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once the country’s richest man, as law-enforcement officials carried out dawn raids on homes of staff working for his Open Russia foundation.

Earlier this month Russian investigators charged the former oil tycoon in abstentia with organising the 1998 murder of a mayor in Siberia, a move supporters say is aimed at silencing the self-exiled Kremlin critic.

Investigators are also checking the legality of the acquisition of Yukos shares by foreign companies that initiated proceedings in worldwide courts to enforce a $US50 billion ($69 billion) damages award against Russian Federation, the committee said on its website. In 2003, the company was broken up by the government over allegedly failing to pay taxes, though the Hague’s arbitration court ruled in 2014 that the government’s real intention was to take over the company’s assets for itself.

On Dec. 11, he was charged with masterminding two murders in the 1990s, the Interfax news agency reported.

Khodorkovsky ridiculed the raids and vowed that his organisation, which he set up in an attempt to help nurture civil society and rouse Russians against the Kremlin, would press ahead with its work. None of the Open Russia employees whose homes were searched worked for him in 1993, he said.

Open Russia’s lawyer Sergei Badamshin said on Twitter that homes of seven employees have been raided.

Tuesday’s raids come after armed police searched the offices of Open Russia in April, during Putin’s marathon annual phone-in session.

Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi last month.

Khodorkovsky, who spends much of his time in London, likened the raids to repression in the Soviet era.

Khodorkovsky, 52, spent 10 years in prison on tax evasion and embezzlement charges widely seen as punishment for challenging Putin’s power.