At night from February 2 to February 3 The flat of Yury Staroverov, a pressman of the Other Russia coalition in Nizhny Novgorod, a former political prisoner for the peaceful seizure of the president's office in December 2004, a staff person of the Nizhny Novgorod supplement to the Novaja Gazeta and the Foundation to Promote Tolerance, was searched by the agents of the special detachment to counteract extremism. It occurred just a few hours after his release from administrative custody together with three other activists of the Other Russia coalition. On January 30, Amnesty International stated that all of the four nazbols of Nizhny Novgorod are accepted as possible prisoners of conscience.

The search was carried out by servicemen of the Nizhny Novgorod Center to counteract extremism. They were headed by police colonel Alexey Trifonov. The same colonel had detained Staroverov six days before that, on January 28, for allegedly swearing in public and for resisting police orders. Being sentenced for five days, Staroverov went on a hunger strike in protest to arbitrary and unfair court decision.

At that, the situation started to develop with a provocation. At around 8 pm electric light in Staroverov's flat went off. Then it went on and started blinking. Sensing some danger, he decided not to go out to check fuses. In some forty minutes, policemen started knocking at the door. At that, they threatened to smash the door open if Staroverov didn't let them in. They were refusing to give any reasons for their late visit. Staroverov managed to reach phones of Ilja Shamazov, the secretary of the Other Russia in NN and the executive director of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, and Zahar Prilepin, the chief editor of the NN supplement to the Novaja Gazeta.

When Shamazov and Prilepin arrived at the site, they saw a group of people in civilian clothes and an investigator with the prosecutor's office. They stated that they were going to search Staroverov's flat. Some of them were staff people with the Ministry for Emergent Situations. Shamazov and Prilepin started to mediate with agents of law-enforcement agencies who offered two options: 1. to either let the investigator and one of the UBOP people in so that they would carry out the search "to establish equipment necessary to produce a banner" or 2. to smash the door open with all the force agents participating in the search. After long debates, Staroverov let them into the flat.

The search was carried out following the warrant which referred to the criminal case initiated under Article 282 of the Russian Penal Code (membership in an illegal group of extremist character). The banner which the anti-extremist police unit referred to was mounted on 21 January on the viaduct over one of the main highways of Nizhny Novgorod by unidentified people. It said, "Putin, Get Out!" The search in Staroverov's flat lasted until 1.30 am, February 3. A computer, some other equipment and two fliers with text critical of the authorities were confiscated.

On 30 January, Amnesty International announced that the organization considers four members of the political opposition in Russia detained in Nizhny Novgorod, Yury Staroverov, Ekaterina Bunicheva, Anton Zakharov and Aleksandr Zaitsev, to be possible prisoners of conscience and demanded their immediate release. All the four people were released on February 2. At that, two of them, Anton Zakharov and Alexander Zaitzev, had been taken to the headquarters of the Center to counteract extremism prior their release. In the words of the young people, they were threatened with further reprisals if they didn't cease their activities. Zakharov was threatened with having problems with his studies. Zaitzev was threatened with a physical assault.

The same day, on 30 January, the World Organization against Torture expressed its concerns about the safety of Yury Staroverov, in particular as he has already been subjected to numerous threats and provocation by service agents of the Center to counteract extremism (former UBOP) and FSB. The organization also expressed its concerns with regard to his 5-day arrest and sentencing as it seems solely based at sanctioning his political activities (some more statements made by the OMCT on the situation in Nizhny Novgorod are attached).

The link to the statement by AI: http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/russian-federation-immediate-release-prisoners-conscience-20090130

In the morning of February 3, it became known that Ilja Shamazov was detained yesterday by the police. Today he has been sentenced to five days of administrative custody for being “rude towards police colonel Grachov”.