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The police seized Dmitry Gudkov for two days for allegedly incurring outstanding debts on a rental property a few years ago.
Russian police released Dmitry Gudkov, a well-known opposition politician in Moscow on Thursday, after detaining him for two days.
Gudkov is a former lawmaker who was arrested on suspicion of unpaid debts on a property rented a few years ago. His father said that his son had nothing to do with property.
Soon after being released from prison, Gudkov posted a photo of himself on Twitter with the caption “Freedom!”
free! pic.twitter.com/WOBbGTtYPM
-Dmitry Gudkov (@gudkovd) June 3, 2021
“Thank you everyone for your support. This can only be attributed to you,” he said to the blesser in an interview Separate tweet.
According to Russian news reports, Gudkov’s lawyer Mikhail Bilyukov said that it is not clear whether his release means that the investigation is still ongoing. According to the National TASS news agency, Gudkov could face up to five years in prison if charged and convicted.
The Russian opposition stated that the authorities intensified its intimidation of dissidents before the parliamentary vote in September in recent months, and the Kremlin denied the accusation.
The police also searched Gudkov’s country house on the outskirts of Moscow, as well as the residences of his allies and relatives.
The Kremlin’s critics were announced at the opening of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (commonly known as Russia’s Davos) on Thursday in Russia’s second largest city.
President Vladimir Putin will speak on Friday at the forum, the country’s main presentation platform for investors.
Gudkov was unusually released after a Russian court on Wednesday ordered the pretrial detention of another prominent Kremlin critic, Andrei Pivovarov (Andrei Pivovarov).
Pivovarov, a former executive director of the recently disbanded pro-democracy organization Open Russia, was pulled off a flight to Warsaw when his plane was taxiing to take off on Monday.
The police searched his apartment in St. Petersburg overnight and conducted a criminal investigation of the activist’s cooperation with an “unpopular organization”. If convicted, Pivovarov will face up to 6 years in prison.
“Open Russia” founded by the self-exiled Putin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky (Mikhail Khodorkovsky) announced its closure last week to protect its members from prosecution.
The organization was designated as an “unpopular” organization in Russia in 2017, which is in line with a law against foreign organizations accused of political interference.
‘Politically motivated’
The European Union had earlier called for Gudkov’s release.
“The detention of opposition politician Dmitry Gudkov was politically motivated,” Peter Stano, the EU’s chief foreign affairs spokesperson, wrote on Twitter.
He said that the Russian state “must allow and promote conditions for true political competition.”
Russia: Detention of opposition politician Dmitry Gudkov @gudkovd It is politically motivated. ???????? called for the immediate and unconditional release of him and other opposition activists. The state must allow and promote conditions for true political competition. https://t.co/qnIy6tdyz5
-Peter Stano (@ExtSpoxEU) June 3, 2021
Although Gudkov has been released, the well-known opposition figure Alexei Navalny is still serving two and a half years in prison. Critics of the Kremlin were arrested after returning from Germany in January, where it took him five months to recover from the nerve agent poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin. Russian officials refused to accept these allegations.
His arrest led to protests across Russia, which proved to be the greatest contempt for the Kremlin in years.
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