Russia seeks to arrest, prosecutes, fines, and restricts 13 exiled journalists

Berlin, July 25, 2024—Russian authorities have targeted more than a dozen exiled journalists over the last month as part of their escalating campaign of transnational repression of independent voices.

Authorities sought the arrest one exiled journalist and added two to their wanted list of suspects sought on criminal charges. More than 95,000 people are named on the the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ online database and risk arrest if they enter Russia.

In addition, five were prosecuted for working with “undesirable organizations,” which are banned from operating in Russia. Anyone who participates in or works to organize the activities of such outlets faces up to six years in prison. It is also a crime to distribute the organizations’ content or donate to them.

Another three journalists were added to the “foreign agents” register, which legally requires them to regularly submit detailed reports of their activities and expenses to authorities and to list their status as “foreign agents” on any published content. Two journalists were fined for failing to comply with this law.

Arrested in absentia

• On June 26, a Moscow court ordered ex-state TV host Farida Kurbangaleeva’s arrest in absentia on charges of justifying terrorism and spreading “fake” information about the Russian army after she interviewed a soldier of a pro-Ukrainian Russian paramilitary group on her YouTube channel. A person arrested in absentia would be immediately held in pre-trial detention if they traveled to Russia or if they traveled to a country that could extradite them to Russia.

On June 20, the Prague-based journalist was also added to the government’s wanted list and on June 28, she was designated a foreign agent.

Wanted list

• On July 17, the Ministry of Internal Affairs added Andrei Zakharov, an investigative journalist and host of The Insider Live YouTube channel, to its wanted list on unspecified charges. Zakharov is facing criminal charges for failing to list his status as a foreign agent in two Telegram posts in March. Zakharov was labeled a foreign agent in 2021, after which he fled Russia.

• On July 18, the Ministry of Internal Affairs added Svetlana Prokopyeva, a journalist with the U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Sever.Realii website, to its wanted list on unspecified charges under the Criminal Code. In 2023, Prokopyeva was fined for “discrediting” the army for an interview with a historian about the war in Ukraine. Prokopyeva, a CPJ 2020 International Press Freedom Awardee, left Russia in 2022.

Prosecuted for ‘undesirable’ activities

• On June 27, a Moscow court fined Asya Zolnikova, a journalist with the Latvia-based independent news site Meduza, 12,000 rubles (US$136) for “participating in an undesirable organization.” At least four other journalists with Meduza, which was labeled as undesirable in 2023, have faced similar charges this year.

Four exiled journalists were prosecuted for “participating in an undesirable organization” for working with Latvia-based investigative outlet The Insider, which was banned in 2022:

• On June 27, journalist Vladimir Romensky was fined 7,500 rubles (US$85) by a Moscow court.

• On July 2, a Moscow court registered a case against The Insider’s founder and editor-in-chief Roman Dobrokhotov.

• On July 15, journalist and editor Timur Olevskiy was fined 10,000 rubles (US$114) by a Moscow court.

• On July 18, a case was registered against journalist Marfa Smirnova.

Designated foreign agents

Between June 28 and July 5, the Ministry of Justice added at least three more exiled journalists to its foreign agents register:

• Aleksandr Shurshev, editor-in-chief of the investigative outlet Khroniki (Chronicles Media).

• Olesya Gerasimenko, who told CPJ that she worked with the BBC until January when she became a freelance journalist.

• The Insider’s investigative reporter Sergey Yezhov.

Fined under foreign agent legislation

Two journalists were fined by a court in the western region of Pskov for failing to comply with the foreign agent legislation:

• On July 1, Denis Kamalyagin, the exiled editor-in-chief of independent newspaper Pskovskaya Guberniya, and the legal entity the journalist created to comply with the law, were fined 330,000 rubles (US$3,785).

• On July 19, the legal entity created by journalist Lyudmila Savitskaya was fined 300,000 rubles (US$3,441). Savitskaya was labeled a foreign agent in 2020 and left Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Russian authorities have effectively clamped down on independent reporting in the country since their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Hundreds of Russian journalists have fled into exile, where they are now increasingly harassed by the authorities with fines, arrest warrants and jail terms in absentia.

CPJ emailed the Ministry of Internal Affairs requesting comment but received no immediate response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.