Just a week ago, the well known media owner Alexander Lebedev was launching new publications in the UK (at a moment when few others are supporting print media), releasing high-minded missives across YouTube denouncing Russian corruption, and lobbying for international support for threatened journalists and other victims of violence in the media.  Today, it appears he is being “held” by the Russian police (though that news could change at any moment), while dozens of masked policemen armed to the teeth have raided his National Reserve Bank over unclear fraud allegations.  While the police had up until the moment never formally requested any information from Lebedev, apparently the officers were particularly interested in seizing all the files related to this bank’s takeover of Rossiisky Bank.

This doesn’t look good at all, and the similarities to other cases are embarrassingly apparent, even including lots of informative chitchat from Stanislav Belkovsky, who is cooking up rumors about Lebedev wanting to “legitimize his wealth” and how the involvement of bailout funds from the state represented “grounds” for a probe.