Russia targets Nobel Peace Prize rights group with raids

By DASHA LITVINOVA
Associated Press

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — The Russian authorities have raided homes and offices of multiple human rights advocates and historians with the prominent rights group Memorial that won the Nobel Peace Prize last year. The wave of searches is part of a steady and sweeping crackdown that the Kremlin has unleashed against dissent in recent years. The group says the raids and the interrogations are connected to a criminal case Russia’s Investigative Committee launched against the activists earlier this month on charges of rehabilitating Nazism. The apartment of the group’s co-chair was among those searched. He called the allegations “idiotic.”