With very public raids across Russia on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin attempted to show opposition protesters who is boss.

Putin is trying to give himself cover to bring trumped up corruption charges against democracy activist, Alexei Navalny. An anti-corruption investigation against Navalny is underway, with authorities accusing him of just that which he has repeatedly proved they engage in: systematic corruption. These raids will almost certainly find some evidence against Navalny. But it will almost certainly be false.