Bug and camera found in Putin’s top foe’s office

MOSCOW - Agence France-Presse

A journalist looks at the twitter page of Russian President Putin’s critic Alexei Navalny. AFP photo

Russian protest leader Alexei Navalny accused the authorities on Aug. 6 of planting a bug and a video recorded in his office as part of their effort to keep tight reins on President Vladimir Putin’s foes.

The 36-year-old lawyer said his colleagues had just returned from summer vacation and decided to scan the office of his Anti-Corruption Fund with a special detector as a joke. “We began with my office, just for laughs,” Navalny wrote on his blog. Russia’s rising political star then posted several photographs showing what looked like a black microphone attached to thin red and white wires that ran along the wall and disappeared into an opening used by other cables. He later posted a video showing police officers inspecting a video camera that had been spying on his office through a tiny opening in the wall. Navalny was recently charged with theft for allegedly organizing a plan to steal about $500,000 in assets from a state company.