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They were looking for "documents containing information on the activities of Pichugin and Gorin, audio and video material on his connections and those of Gorin, and other documents relevant to the investigation". In other words, anything they could get to feed the twisted logic that linked the victim to the man they had decided to put inside. The search orders were issued on 11 June by Yuriy Burtovoy, who was de-facto running the investigation but only officially took charge of it on 7 July.
The searches yielded a rich haul. An investigator by the name of Goryanov and two FSB men arrived at the flat of Pichugin's first wife at 9 in the morning. They left at about 11 with some family photo albums and home videos.
The search at Aleksey's actual home was more eventful. Investigating officer Voynov and three FSB men, refusing to show ID, began at half past 8. By half past 12 they had packed and sealed their evidence - Pichugin's notebooks and collection of business cards, his work ID passes, various family papers and photo albums, several videocassettes and even callout procedures for members of the Yukos security service's 4th section, which Pichugin headed.
As is the practice in our country, Pichugin's lawyers were given no advance notice of the searches. Despite Aleksey's demand that they wait for a lawyer, the investigating officer began the search. The lawyers arrived an hour later but the FSB men refused to let them in, saying there wasn't enough room for them. How great are our Russian laws!
In his office they seized the safe. Declining to open it there and then, they took it away along with several Yukos documents including Pichugin's job definition. A month and a half went by and the men from the procuracy again searched the office, its occupant now safely under lock and key. They clearly expected some proof to have materialised there in the intervening period...
In Russia, a land of a reformed judiciary, the searches could have been far worse. When the police are involved, it's not unheard of for floors to be dismantled and wallpaper scraped off. Just to make a point. But these searches, with the FSB as witnesses (it's only the FSB, nothing to worry about!), were pretty much standard. In any normal country, people would be held to account for this kind of "standard". In Russia, they are decorated for it.
As for the outcome of the searches, not one of the items or documents seized was presented or even mentioned at the trial. But some of them did come in useful. A home video by Pichugin of Yukos managers on a day out hunting (he was one of the bodyguards) was forwarded by the presidential administration to the state propagandists at NTV. They used parts of it for an equally amateurish expose.
What was left to the prosecution? It still had one tried and tested weapon of the cunning - the expert examination. As I said earlier, the disappearance and likely murder of the Gorins happened on 20-21 November 2002. Exactly seven months before Pichugin's arrest. Ahead of that historic quarrel between Mikhail Khodorkovskiy and Vladimir Putin, this crime in Tambov Region had attracted no particular attention. In Moscow, nobody had even heard of it. All the experts and investigators carried on at their own unhurried pace.
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