Lawyer Dimitri Zahvatov, a participant in a seminar organized by the Russian opposition in Belgrade in May last year, said that one of the reasons for the arrest of activist Vladimir Kara-Murza was that the Serbian Minister of Internal Affairs, Aleksandar Vulin, handed over the transcripts to Moscow. of intercepted conversations.

Zahvatov says that in addition to Kara-Murza, Andrey Pivovarov, another opposition politician and opponent of Vladimir Putin's regime, was also arrested by a joint action of the Serbian and Russian security services.

The court in Moscow had made a decision to extend the detention for two months of Kara-Murza, who became known to the public in Serbia after revealing the affair for the wiretapping of Russian opposition activists in Belgrade, in which Vulin was also involved.

He described to the Serbian media how they were followed by the members of the MIA and why he thinks that Vulin's activities contributed to the arrest of two members of the opposition.

There it is emphasized that this type of activity can be problematic for the security system of Serbia, because it is limited to espionage activities for the benefit of the security service of another country.

Kara-Murza's detention was continued.

The Serbian public heard about it after the topic of wiretapping of the Russian opposition in Belgrade was opened.

"It is clear that the consequence of that joint action is the arrest of Pivovarov.

He was arrested two weeks after our return from Serbia and after Aleksandar Vulin handed over the transcripts of our wiretapped conversations to Russian National Security Secretary Nikolai Patrushev.

I am convinced that after that (Vulin's arrival in Moscow) Patrushev ordered the services to deal with opposition politicians, first of all with Pivovarov and Kara-Murza", says Zahvatov.

“In Russia, these things are done like this, so if they get enough material to mark you as a traitor, according to their standards, they will start proceedings against you in court.

The official reason why Kara-Murza was arrested was allegedly a meeting in Arizona where he talked about the war in Ukraine," he adds.

Zahvatov: How were we intercepted in Belgrade?

The story of our interception is very strange.

None of us expected something like this to happen.

That multi-day meeting was organized in Belgrade, because it was not possible to organize the same one in Russia.

At first everything was calm, but when we went out to see the city, I noticed a strange situation: I saw a man and a woman sitting at the table next to us, it was Saturday.

There was only tea and dessert on their table, which clearly indicated that it was not a meeting between a man and a woman, nor that they were there for business reasons, considering that they did not communicate with each other.

It was obvious that they came here because of us, and that's when I began to suspect that it was a case of eavesdropping.

After that, I suggested that we split into two groups that will go to two different places to prove that I am right.

Part of the group went in the direction of Kalemegdan and others went shopping, that is, in search of clothes, considering that it was already getting dark and colder.

While walking, he noticed that the same person who was sitting with the girl in the restaurant was moving behind us.

He and another man were moving behind us and it was obvious that they were following us.

At that moment I photographed them.

The next day we hired a boat tour, and after leaving the pier, behind the ship, at a distance of about 200 meters, we were followed by a small boat, in which were two men, one of whom, in my judgment, is the same man at the beginning of this story.

In the following days, the monitoring was continuous and I photographed and recorded the people who were spying on us just in case.

We often wondered what to do, as it was not logical to go to the police and report that we were being followed.

In the end I decided to save the recordings I had made, believing they would be useful.

Pivovarov was quickly arrested, and a few months later the story of the wiretapping appeared in the media.

All journalists left Russia to report.

Most do this through Telegram, which is still not banned in Russia.

However, the problem is that, since the start of the war, 136,000 websites have been blocked by the Russian authorities.

So it is very difficult to stay informed, but people find ways and try to stay updated.

/Telegraph/