MOSCOW, December 22 (RAPSI) – Investigators on Tuesday conducted searches at the Moscow office of the Open Russia public movement established by businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky and at the apartments of the movement’s employees, RIA Novosti reported.

According to Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin, searches are connected with the Yukos embezzlement case launched in 2003.

Khodorkovsky, who has been recently charged in absentia with organizing the murder of Nefteyugansk mayor Vladimir Petukhov in 1998, announced on Tuesday that Open Russia will continue its activities.

He also said that actual Open Russia activists never worked in Yukos.