You're reading: Russian officials search Amnesty International

MOSCOW — Officials are searching the Russian headquarters of human rights watchdog Amnesty International.

Amnesty’s Russia
chief Sergei Nikitin told the AP by telephone that officials from the
general prosecutor’s office and tax police conducted an unannounced
audit of his offices Monday. Nikitin said the officials requested
documents the government already has on file.

They were
accompanied by journalists from the state-controlled NTV station, which
has been used by the Kremlin for hatchet jobs against its political
foes.

Russian officials have searched up
to 2,000 NGOs in the past month, according to Pavel Chikov, a member of
the presidential human rights council.

The searches began after
President Vladimir Putin gave a speech to the FSB, the KGB’s successor
agency, in which he urged them to focus attention on groups receiving
foreign funding.