Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Monday that he found an eavesdropping device behind a wall panel in the office of his Anti-Corruption Fund. Navalny alerted the police upon finding the bug, which is featured in two photos that he posted on Twitter. The photos show a wooden panel pulled away from the wall near the floor, exposing a bundle of wires that lead to a rectangular-shaped piece of black plastic, presumably the listening device.
Officers arrived at Navalny's downtown Moscow office at 26 Nikolo-Yamskaya Ulitsa around 2 p.m. and "conducted checks" of the area, a police representative told Interfax. Navalny, arguably the most prominent figure in the opposition movement, was charged last week with costing the state budget $500,000 by organizing the theft of timber goods from a state company in 2009. He has called the charge "absurd" and likened it to stealing an "entire forest." If convicted, he faces 10 years in prison.