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Khodorkovsky's
Open Russia movement said police had also searched some of its
employees' apartments in Moscow and St Petersburg and had taken
away documents.
Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia's Investigative
Committee, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying the
raids were related to a legal case first launched in 2003
against Khodorkovsky and his allies relating to what the state
regarded as the illegal privatization of a mining and fertilizer
company called Apatit.
Khodorkovsky, 52, once Russia's richest man thanks to his then
control of the Yukos oil company, likened the raids to
repression in the Soviet era, suggesting they were linked to
critical comments he had made about President Vladimir Putin.
"The decay had entered its final stage," Khodorkovsky told the
Ekho Moskvy radio station. ""We are all familiar with this from
the time of (Soviet leader Leonid) Brezhnev."
"Everyone who collaborates with Open Russia perfectly
understands and understood from the very start that such
pressure was not only possible but inevitable."
Russian authorities arrested Khodorkovsky in 2003 after he fell
out with Putin. He was later convicted of tax evasion and fraud
in a trial he always said was politically-motivated.
Released in 2013, he now spends a lot of time in London.
Earlier this month, Russian police said they had uncovered
evidence suggesting Khodorkovsky had ordered the 1998 contract
killing of the mayor of an oil-producing town in Siberia and
wanted him to stand trial for the alleged crime.
Khodorkovsky denied any involvement.
(Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
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