The Wall Street Journal - 13.09.2019

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. ***** Friday, September 13, 2019 |A

WORLD NEWS

MOSCOW—Russian authori-

ties raided the homes and of-

fices of political opposition ac-

tivists across the country

Thursday, detaining some for

interrogation, seizing elec-

tronics and blocking personal

accounts in one of the biggest-

ever coordinated strikes

against the Kremlin’s political

opponents.

Nearly 200 homes and re-

gional offices in 42 cities affili-

ated with opposition politician

Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corrup-

tion Fund were searched, ac-

cording to members of the or-

ganization and independent

lawyers. The searches stemmed

from an investigation by Rus-

sian authorities into alleged

money laundering by the or-

ganization, those people said.

Mr. Navalny’s group denies the

charges, which some critics of

Russian President Vladimir Pu-

tin call politically motivated.

Mr. Navalny has used the

fund as a platform to expose

the corruption of Russian gov-

ernment officials. The organi-

zation has crystallized into the

closest thing Russia has to a

coherent political opposition

force across the country.

Following months of pro-

tests in Moscow against Mr.

Putin’s tightly controlled polit-

ical system, Mr. Navalny led

calls this month to topple poli-

ticians associated with the

pro-Kremlin United Russia

party in Sept. 8 local elections

across the country. In Moscow,

where Mr. Navalny tried to

turn the vote into a referen-

dum on Mr. Putin, the number

of United Russia’s seats in the

45-seat city council fell to 25

from 38.

Though the city council is

relatively toothless, members

of the Anti-Corruption Fund

say it shows the vulnerability

Mr. Putin and his political cro-

nies face at the ballot box.

“The more powerful our ac-

tions, the stronger the reac-

tion,” Mr. Navalny’s spokes-

woman Kira Yarmysh wrote on

Twitter Thursday. “We’ve

never had such a massive

strike against the Anti-Corrup-

tion Fund and our organiza-

tion and regional headquar-

ters....We won’t stop.”

Critics said the raids

against Mr. Navalny’s follow-

ers and other opposition

groups appear to also be a

strike against those seen as in-

strumental in organizing the

protest movement that

erupted in July, slowly turning

into the biggest public show of

dissent against Mr. Putin for

the past several years.

Mr. Navalny, who was regu-

larly detained ahead of

planned rallies, was in the

group’s Moscow office on

Thursday, trying to reach out to

regional offices to deter-

mine the size of the raids,

“though the telephones of

many of our colleagues have

been seized,” Ms. Yarmysh said.

Opposition activists said

Russia’s Investigative Commit-

tee was responsible for the

raids. The agency didn’t answer

phone calls seeking comment.

In some cases, authorities

also searched the homes of

relatives of Anti-Corruption

Fund members.

The parents of Alexander

Smirnov, the deputy of Mr. Na-

valny’s headquarters in the

city of Yaroslavl, were awak-

ened at 6 a.m., when more

than a dozen Russian po-

lice personnel stormed their

house, taking away the family

computer and telephones, Mr.

Smirnov wrote on Twitter.

He said he himself was then

taken to court to face disorder

charges for his participation in

protests in Moscow last

month. He wasn’t reachable

for further comment.

The investigation against

Mr. Navalny’s Anti-Corruption

Fund not only strikes against

the personnel who run the or-

ganization, but also gives Rus-

sia’s Federal Security Service,

with headquarters on Mos-

cow’s Lubyanka Square, in-

sights into their funding.

“If I was sitting on Luby-

anka, I would want to know

how they’re funded, how they

get their money, who’s giving

it to them,” said Mark Gale-

otti, senior associate fellow at

the Royal United Services In-

stitute, a London think tank.

“That’s how you really bring

them down.”

The deputy of Mr. Navalny’s

headquarters in St. Petersburg

said the personal bank ac-

counts of members had been

blocked.

Other organizations unaffil-

iated with Mr. Navalny were

also targeted, including the

vote-monitoring group Golos,

and a branch of regional eco-

logical activists, said Pavel

Chikov, a human-rights lawyer.

BYTHOMASGROVE

Raids Target Putin’s Opponents

A masked officer raiding an office in Perm of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, voting in Moscow below.

59.RU/REUTERS

WORLD WATCH

Richard Ferrand, who ran Mr.

Macron’s presidential campaign,

abused his role as an executive

at Mutuelles de Bretagne in

2011, when the health insurer

decided to rent a building from

Mr. Ferrand’s girlfriend, the pros-

ecutor’s office said Thursday.

Prosecutors questioned Mr.

Ferrand until late in the night

Wednesday.

A previous probe targeting

Mr. Ferrand’s time at Mutuelles

de Bretagne was dismissed in

2017. The new probe was trig-
      gered by a complaint filed by an
      anticorruption group.
      Mr. Ferrand, 57 years old, said
      he wasn’t alarmed since the
      plaintiff didn’t bring any new ev-
      idence to the case. He added
      that he was determined to stay
      in his job. Mr. Ferrand has al-
      ways denied wrongdoing.
      —Noemie Bisserbe

TURKEY

Central Bank Again

Cuts Interest Rate

Turkey’s central bank cut its

benchmark interest rate Thurs-

day, loosening money supply for

the second time in less than

two months amid pressure from

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

to stimulate the economy.

The central bank lowered its

one-week repo rate to 16.5%

from 19.75%, citing improvement

in inflation outlook.

The decision came days af-

ter the president said he ex-

pected the central bank would

cut interest rates and bring

them below 10% in the very

near future.

—Yeliz Kazan

AFGHANISTAN

Taliban Urge U.S.

To Resume Talks

The Taliban called on the U.S.

to restart talks on ending the

18-year conflict in Afghanistan,

urging the Trump administration

to revisit a nearly completed

deal after it abruptly withdrew

from the process last week.

The chief U.S. negotiator, Zal-

may Khalilzad, remains on the

job and has continued to sched-

ule meetings with counterparts

for the remainder of September,

according to people familiar with

his plans.

Mr. Khalilzad didn’t respond

to a request to comment.

Morgan Ortagus, the State

Department spokeswoman, de-

clined to comment on Mr. Khal-

ilzad’s meetings, but said the

president campaigned on “bring-

ing our troops home, and I be-

lieve that that still remains the

president’s goal”.

The Taliban’s spokesman in

Qatar called on Mr. Trump on

Thursday to return to the nego-

tiating table.

—Jessica Donati

FRANCE

Macron Ally Faces

Corruption Probe

French prosecutors opened a

probe into the past business activ-

ity of the speaker of the National

Assembly, muddying efforts by

President Emmanuel Macron to

clean up politics in the wake of

the yellow-vest crisis.

Investigators in the city of

Lille are examining whether

MUGABE MOURNED: The casket of ex-Zimbabwe President

Robert Mugabe is taken from his home for a viewing in Harare.

AARON UFUMELI/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

VASILY MAXIMOV/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

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