Surveillance camera footage posted online showed a man in a hoodie setting a bag ablaze at the entry of the Central District Hospital in the town of Yegorievsk before running away. Earlier that day, a Youtube channel run by Navalny’s staff had aired a segment accusing the hospital of massively overcharging customers for subsidized medication and burial services.

A hooded man set fire to the front door a hospital near Moscow late on Thursday, hours after opposition leader Alexei Navalny released an investigative report about alleged corruption at the facility.

On Friday, the state-run TASS news agency reported that police had opened a criminal investigation into the arson.

“It has been established that an unknown man entered the hospital, put a bag near the front door of the main entrance, set it on fire and disappeared,” local police told the agency.

The state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported that no one had been injured in the fire.



Commenting on the event, Alexei Navalny posted on Twitter that he believed the fire was purposely set to prevent a further audit of the hospital.

“At the Yegorievsk hospital...about which we filmed a report, they decided that only a fire would save them from an audit and set fire to their local hospital,” the oppositionist said.