Your home is being searched

The guides below are drafts: a lawyer has not reviewed them yet. This is not legal advice.

Draft What human rights defenders advise

Ask to see the court order. In urgent cases a search can go ahead without one, with the court notified later (art. 165 pt 5 CPC).
The law requires two attesting witnesses (arts 170, 182 CPC). You can ask for neighbours to be called; any refusal should go into the record.
Call a lawyer straight away: you have the right to one, but the investigator does not have to wait for them to arrive.
By law you do not have to give passwords (art. 51 of the Constitution). In practice a refusal is sometimes met with pressure, so decide with your lawyer how to handle it. Turn on encryption and a passcode lock in advance. During a search, do not hide or switch off devices in front of officers: it can make your situation worse.
Human rights groups advise putting every violation into the comments on the record, asking for a full copy and watching that nothing is planted.

Ready-made templates and tools

Templates for complaints and applications (in Russian) · First Department (foreign agent) · link checked September 26
Template collection: motions, complaints, applications (in Russian) · OVD-Info (foreign agent, extremist) · link checked September 26

Situations this guide covers