Police searched a company owned by the husband of environmental champion Yevgenia Chirikova, who dared defy the authorities over a highway project set to partially destroy Moscow region’s Khimki forest.
Wednesday?€™s raid on Mikhail Matveyev?€™s Ezop engineering company was linked to a tax evasion investigation into another engineering firm in Nizhny Novgorod, Chirikova?€™s supporters said on a LiveJournal blog.
Investigators are looking for evidence of possible ties between Ezop and the Nizhny Novgorod company, Energo Engineering, the report said. Matveyev was questioned but not detained.
Chirikova?€™s supporters linked the search to their criticism of Transportation Minister Igor Levitin, who they claim will be a beneficiary of the $8 billion project to build a highway from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
Environmental activists have started an online petition for Levitin?€™s removal, gathering more than 3,300 signatures by Wednesday. They also picketed the ministry on Tuesday.
Levitin has not commented on the allegations.