According to Belkovsky, the search began at 9:42 and lasted about three hours. He said the investigative team consisted of four people and two SOBR officers with an angle grinder. Law enforcement officers, he said, seized his computer equipment.
Belkovsky offered his opinion on why he believed the investigators needed the search: to create a "huge body of material" that would prove the income of former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky was criminal and had been laundered by a group of people. He suggested they came to him because someone had reported that he allegedly had some connection to Khodorkovsky.
On the same day, searches were conducted at the homes of several Open Russia staff members, including executive director Timur Valeev; after the search, Valeev was taken for questioning to the Investigative Committee. The Russian Investigative Committee stated that the searches at the movement's representatives were carried out as part of the so-called first Yukos case, which has been under investigation since 2003. The Investigative Committee also noted in its statement that movement staff allegedly receive money from the British organization Open Russia, which has been designated undesirable. Former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky is the founder of Open Russia; until April 2017, he served as chairman of the movement.
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