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| - Russian investigators on Thursday searched the homes of several Kremlin critics who have urged supporters to protest President Vladimir Putin's rule, activists said. They targeted the home of Yulia Galyamina, a Moscow city councillor, helped organise mass opposition protests last summer, the activists said. Galyamina has urged supporters to take to the streets next Wednesday for a protest against Putin's constitutional changes that now allow him to stay in power until 2036. Investigators also searched the homes of activists of Open Russia, a movement established by self-exiled Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and the editorial offices of MBKh Media, an outlet founded by Khodorkovsky. The Investigative Committee did not release an immediate comment. Marina Litvinovich, a member of the opposition NYET (NO) campaign, linked the searches to plans to stage the protest against the results of the constitutional reforms that the Kremlin has dubbed a "triumph." On Wednesday, she said, organisers received a formal notification from Moscow authorities who said staging a rally was not possible due to coronavirus restrictions. "We believe this is all linked," she told AFP. Open Russia said formally the searches were linked to the Yukos case dating back to 2003. Yukos is Khodorkovsky's oil company that he says was destroyed and sold off for political reasons. Kremlin critics have dismissed this as a formal pretext, pointing out that one of the activists who is being targeted -- a member of Open Russia, Olga Gorelik -- was a minor in 2003. The latest searches came after Putin, who has been in power for two decades, this month oversaw a controversial nationwide vote that allows him to extend his grip on power after his fourth Kremlin term ends in 2024. The Golos election monitoring group has described the vote as "unprecedented" in terms of violations, saying it would go down in history as an attack on the sovereignty of the people. Russian's main opposition leader Alexei Navalny called Thursday's searches a new campaign of "intimidation." "This is an attempt to demoralise those who are against Putin and publicly punish those who have campaigned against Putin's amendments." as/lc
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