Moscow police launched a sequence of raids on Wednesday on residences and places of work of jailed Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny’s household and associates, arresting his brother.

The searched areas included Mr. Navalny’s house, the place police detained his brother, Oleg, and a rented house the place Navalny’s spouse, Yulia, has been dwelling.

Video on the web TV station Dozhd confirmed Yulia Navalny telling journalists from the window that police had not allowed her lawyer to enter the house.

The raids got here 4 days earlier than protests that Mr. Navalny’s supporters have known as for Sunday.

Demonstrations calling for his launch befell in additional than 100 cities throughout the nation on final Saturday, a powerful present of rising anger towards the Kremlin. Almost 4,000 folks have been reported arrested at these protests.

Different areas raided by police on Wednesday have been the places of work of Mr. Navalny’s anti-corruption basis and the studio that produces his movies and on-line broadcasts. The favored movies and broadcasts helped make Mr. Navalny into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most outstanding and chronic foe.

There was no instant police touch upon the searches. Navalny associates mentioned on social media that the searches have been related to alleged violations of epidemiological laws from final week’s mass protest in Moscow.

However “the true cause for the searches of Mr. Navalny’s groups, family members and workplace is Putin’s loopy concern,” Mr. Navalny’s group mentioned in a message.

Mr. Navalny’s problem to Mr. Putin grew after he was arrested on January 17 upon his return from Germany, the place he spent 5 months recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin.

Two days after his arrest, his organisation launched an intensive video report on a palatial seaside compound allegedly constructed for Mr. Putin. It has been seen tens of thousands and thousands of occasions, additional stoking discontent.

Mr. Navalny, the Kremlin’s most outstanding and sturdy foe, fell right into a coma whereas aboard a home flight from Siberia to Moscow on August 20. He was transferred from a hospital in Siberia to a Berlin hospital two days later.

Labs in Germany, France and Sweden, and exams by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, established that he was uncovered to the Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent.

Russian authorities have refused to open a full-fledged felony inquiry, citing an absence of proof that Mr. Navalny was poisoned.

In December, Mr. Navalny launched the recording of a cellphone name he mentioned he made to a person he described as an alleged member of a gaggle of officers of the Federal Safety Service, or FSB, who purportedly poisoned him in August after which tried to cowl it up. The FSB dismissed the recording as faux.

Mr. Navalny’s arrest and the cruel police actions on the protests have introduced extensive criticism from the West and requires his launch.

Russia’s overseas ministry mentioned on Wednesday {that a} assertion by the Group of Seven overseas ministers condemning his arrest constitutes “gross interference” in Russia’s home affairs.