Lawyer representing Navalny's foundation investigated

Russian authorities have launched a criminal probe against a lawyer representing a Russian journalist accused of treason and the team of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny, accusing him of disclosing information related to a police investigation.

St. Petersburg-based lawyer Ivan Pavlov told reporters on Friday his room in a Moscow hotel was raided and he was summoned to Russia's Investigative Committee for interrogation as a suspect in a criminal case on charges of disclosing information related to a police investigation — an offense punishable by a fine, community service or arrest of up to three months.

Pavlov said accusations against him were connected to his defense of Ivan Safronov, a Russian journalist charged with treason in a case that has been widely seen as politically motivated.

Pavlov had been due to appear in a Moscow court on Friday at a hearing into extending Safronov's pre-trial detention.

Team 29, a team of lawyers Pavlov heads in St. Petersburg specializing in freedom of speech cases, said on social media that law enforcement targeted Pavlov's wife in St. Petersburg and the team's IT specialist with home searches.

The Investigative Committee is also searching the team's offices, the team said.

Earlier this month, the Moscow prosecutor's office petitioned the Moscow City Court to outlaw Navalny's Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his network of regional offices as extremist groups.

The move is part of a sweeping crackdown on Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's most prominent critic, his allies and his political infrastructure.

Navalny is currently serving time in a penal colony outside Moscow.

He was arrested in January upon his return from Germany, where he had spent five months recovering from a nerve agent poisoning he blames on the Kremlin.

Russian officials have rejected the accusations.