Bugged? Russian Anti-Corruption Blogger Charged With Embezzlement Finds Recording Devices in His Office

MOSCOW (TheBlaze/AP) -- Russia's opposition leader Alexei Navalny says he has discovered a listening device and a video camera in his office in central Moscow.

Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putin's fiercest critics and a driving force behind last winter's mass protests, posted a photo of the listening device on his Twitter on Monday and issued this YouTube video:

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Police officers were working at Navalny's offices to investigate how the device got planted there. Navalny tweeted a story on his Live Journal documenting the investigation. Here is what he has written thus far (translated by Google Translate):

An employee of the Foundation for Combating Corruption (ipasserby) out of the holidays and brought "bug detector". They began to laugh, to check my office.

Now in office, 12 police officers.

Found not only the current listening device, but also a hidden video camera.

Power supplies, transmitters of information, all the cases.

The 36-year-old anti-corruption activist was charged last month with theft for allegedly organizing a plan to steal about $500,000 in assets from a state timber company. He was ordered to remain in Moscow as authorities investigate him. Navalny has denied the charges. The New York Times has more on this denial from last week:

The State Investigative Committee on Tuesday accused Mr. Navalny, acting as an adviser to the governor of the Kirov region, of organizing a scheme to steal timber from KirovLes, resulting in losses of $500,000 to the regional budget. He has denied any wrongdoing, and he sounded surprised after meeting with investigators on Tuesday.

“What has happened is absolutely absurd and very strange, because they have completely changed the story behind the charge,” Mr. Navalny said. “I cannot imagine how they will find a way to prove it. But they will, I guess.”

These latest finds in Navalny's office at the Anti-Corruption Fund, for which Navalny immediately called the police to investigate, could have been they "way to prove it" that Navalny alluded to.