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Authorities Raid Home of Veteran Russian Rights Campaigner Zoya Svetova

Human rights campaigner Zoya Svetova Zoya Svetova / Facebook

Russian authorities are searching the Moscow home of journalist and long-time human rights campaigner Zoya Svetova. 

Her lawyer Anna Stavitskaya wrote about the raid on Facebook: "There's a raid at Zoya Svetova's house! I'm on my way to see her."

Zoya Svetova, a Moscow Times columnist, is known for her extensive work on prisoners' rights in Russia. She is also the mother of the Dzyadko brothers, all three of whom are journalists for liberal Russian publications.

Open Russia, an opposition platform funded by millionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky with whom Svetova has worked, has said that there are currently two FSB officers and 10 investigators in her home. 

One of Svetova's sons, Timofei Dziadko who is currently at a conference in Sochi, wrote about the raid on Facebook:

"While I'm attending an investment forum in Sochi, my parents' Moscow home is being searched as part of the YUKOS case and Open Russia. The raid started around 11 a.m. Burn in hell with your investments, Dmitry Anatolyevich [Medvedev]!"

"PS: To clarify to my colleagues. Do not call my mother right now and don't ask me for her number. If you did not know this, then I will tell you: during raids, authorities do not let you use the phone. It was the also the case on the 23rd of January 1985, on the day of my birth, when my mother could not call home with the happy news, due to the raid of my grandfather Felix Svetov. They arrested him then. I hope it will not come to it this time." 

"Mum and dad, hang in there! Everything will be ok. We will not let you go!"

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