Two opposition legislators in Russia separately came under pressure by law enforcement officials in what they said was politically motivated harassment, media reported.
On Thursday, Moscow police asked a court to strip the license of a private security firm controlled by relatives of Gennady Gudkov, a State Duma deputy with A Just Russia party.
The firm, Pantan, violated numerous regulations, including on storage of firearms, and failed to rectify them after an official warning, city police said on their website.
A separate criminal case is in the works against another private security firm owned by the Gudkovs, police said in another statement. The company, Ayaks-Inter, was accused of faking a license of one of its employees.
The Investigative Committee is also investigating Gudkov, a retired KGB colonel, for tax evasion, the agency said on Tuesday.
Gudkov, who was involved with mass anti-government protests ongoing in Moscow since December, said earlier that the criminal cases were Kremlin’s retribution for his political activity.
He also said on Thursday that he sold his private security holding, Oskord, to a rival St. Petersburg group “for peanuts” in order to save it from “destruction over his political views.”
Meanwhile, the Prosecutor General’s Office prepared to request that the State Duma strip Communist lawmaker Vladimir Bessonov of immunity, Vedomosti reported on Thursday, citing a source close to the agency.
Bessonov is accused of hitting a policeman during a tussle that erupted after police cracked down on an allegedly unsanctioned rally in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don in December.
He maintains his innocence and insists that police dispersed a legitimate voter meeting. Senior Communist Party official Vadim Solovyov earlier called the case politically motivated, Vedomosti said.
The Investigative Committee already sought to have Bessonov stripped of immunity, but the lower chamber turned down its request on a technicality.
Opposition leaders claim a harassment campaign against them was launched by the authorities after a rally in Moscow on May 6 turned violent.
The homes of several prominent opposition figures, including whistleblowing lawyer Alexei Navalny and politically conscious socialite Ksenia Sobchak, were searched in recent weeks, and they were questioned as witnesses as part of the ongoing investigation into the riots, over which 14 people were already charged.
