Searches of staff from Open Russia, a non-governmental civil society group, are underway as part of a money laundering investigation. The Russian Investigative Committee suspects Open Russia played a part in the launder of funds obtained through an affiliate company, Yukos, which stole and illegally sold oil.

Searches are underway of those “entrepreneurs and persons, which finance from abroad via organizations whose accounts in the past and, possibly, the present are controlled by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Leonid Nevzlin and other leading participants of their group,” said the Investigative Committee.

The Investigative Committee also announced it is verifying the information, which former Yukos shareholders brought before international courts to sue the Russian state for $50 billion USD for illegally expropriating the company. The Committee is verifying whether shareholders' acquisition and control over Yukos shares were in accordance with the law.

Searches of Open Russia's staff members in Moscow and St. Petersburg began the morning of December 22. In particular, investigators have approached Khodorkovsky's press secretary Kulle Pispanen, and Party of People’s Freedom (Parnas) council members Natalia Gryaznevich and Andrei Pivovarov. The searches are taking place at both Open Russia and Parnas offices and at their employees' homes.

Investigative Committee Official Representative Vladimir Markin said the searches are connected to the Yukos case initiated in 2003. Open Russia published a picture of the search protocol on its Twitter feed. The document cites the original 2003 Yukos case number, No. 18 / 41-03, which looked into the theft of Apatit mining and processing firm shares and tax evasion.

The stolen oil and the funds laundered via its sale are the main features of this second “Yukos case.” The charges date back to the case from 2006.