Opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Monday that he found an eavesdropping device behind a wall panel in the office of his Anti-Corruption Fund.
Navalny alerted the police upon finding the bug, which is featured in two photos that he posted on Twitter. The photos show a wooden panel pulled away from the wall near the floor, exposing a bundle of wires that lead to a rectangular-shaped piece of black plastic, presumably the listening device.
Officers arrived at Navalny's downtown Moscow office at 26 Nikolo-Yamskaya Ulitsa around 2 p.m. and "conducted checks" of the area, a police representative told Interfax.
Navalny, arguably the most prominent figure in the opposition movement, was charged last week with costing the state budget $500,000 by organizing the theft of timber goods from a state company in 2009. He has called the charge "absurd" and likened it to stealing an "entire forest." If convicted, he faces 10 years in prison.
Navalny's announcement of the bug on his Twitter page was met with a deluge of comments, including the occasional joke and ironic statement.
"But imagine: What if the bug was placed in Navalny's office by his wife?" a user called Hey Sultee wrote.
TV personality-turned-opposition activist Ksenia Sobchak added: "What a shock! They're listening to Navalny. I never would have thought…"
