Russian journalists searched for a Ukrainian curator
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In Moscow, the Moscow region, Krasnodar, Yekaterinburg, Tyumen and Rostov-on-Don, law enforcement agencies conducted a series of searches on September 8 at the homes of local journalists and activists. The reason was a criminal case on the dissemination of fakes about a military operation, initiated against ex-deputy Ilya Ponomarev (included in the register of foreign agents, currently located in Ukraine and actually participating in hostilities on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine). Law enforcement officers were looking for the administrators of the suspect’s YouTube channel, breaking down doors and seizing equipment during some searches. At least one of the journalists is involved in the case as a witness.
The searches in different parts of Russia took place as part of a criminal case “on the spread of fakes about the RF Armed Forces against former State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev,” the Koptevsky District Court of Moscow reported. The reason for it was the statements of the ex-parliamentarian in March 2022 on the YouTube channel “Free Russia Forum”, where Mr. Ponomarev “reported deliberately false information under the guise of reliable reports”, including about the destruction of civilians and a clergyman by Russian troops, claims TASS (with reference to the search warrant).
Searches in six regions began in the morning. Source “RIA Novosti” in law enforcement agencies explained that law enforcement officers found the places of residence of the administrators of the channels of Ilya Ponomarev in Telegram and YouTube. In Moscow security forces visited photographer Ruslan Sukhushin, taking all his equipment from him. According to a RIA Novosti source in power structures, the housing of the moderators of the Legion “Freedom of Russia” Telegram channel was searched in Moscow: according to law enforcement officers, Ilya Ponomarev advised him. On September 8, blogger Sergei Nosov from the village of Baklanovo, Orel Region, and Viktor Zyryanov, co-founder of the Orlets publication, were also searched. in Reutov near Moscow.
In Ekaterinburg The police visited the apartment of Vladislav Postnikov, editor of the online newspaper Vecherniye Vedomosti, armed with a decision of the Koptevsky District Court of Moscow.
The resolution (Kommersant has a copy) states that Mr. Postnikov could have transferred to Ilya Ponomarev “materials used to discredit the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.” The journalist’s phones, hard drive, flash card, smart watch and two banners were confiscated.
At the time of the investigation, the journalist was not at home, and he and his lawyer Georgy Krasnov learned about the searches from the media. Mr. Krasnov suggested that the search was carried out by fighters of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Sverdlovsk Region, accompanied by the FSB special forces, specifying that law enforcement officers broke down the door in the apartment. The security forces planned to search the editorial office of Evening Vedomosti to find Mr. Postnikov, but the journalist himself came for questioning to the center for countering extremism of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Sverdlovsk Region. The lawyer explained that Mr. Postnikov was involved in the case of Mr. Ponomarev as a witness. According to Vladislav Postnikov, he was asked if he passed information about the Russian army to Ilya Ponomarev and whether he took money for it. The journalist answered all questions in the negative, adding that he did not know the ex-deputy at all and had never communicated with him. “I couldn’t even comment on the game that Ponomarev was carrying lately,” the publication quotes Mr. Postnikov. URA.RU.- From such people you need to stay away and in no case support. “For me, the violent actions that he promoted are unacceptable. Apparently, they are looking for those who remained in the country and are not afraid to express a position that disagrees with officials,” the journalist said.
In Krasnodar the police did not find the house of civil activist, urbanist Miroslav Valkovich (he himself was in another city at that time), so the house was searched in the presence of his wife and children.
Mr. Valkovich told Kommersant that he learned from the media about the alleged connection between the investigative actions in his house and the case of Ilya Ponomarev and called such a connection “nonsense.”
In Tyumen security officials came to the ex-editor of the TyumenPro portal and freelance correspondent of the Siberian branch of Radio Liberty – Siberia.Realii (included in the register of foreign agents) Yulia Glazova. A Kommersant source in law enforcement agencies considered that Ms. Glazova could be “in close contact” with Ilya Ponomarev. According to the portal 86.ruall the equipment was confiscated from the girl, and after interrogation they were released. In Rostov-on-Don Bella Nasibyan, a RusNews journalist, was visited by three employees of the E center at six in the morning, having arranged a search “without pressure and defeat.” “I was informed that the search warrant was from Moscow,” Ms. Nasibyan said. Mobile phones were confiscated from her and her mother; Also confiscated was the “Women of the Don” mug and the “Memorial” badge (it was entered by the Ministry of Justice into the register of foreign agents, and then liquidated by a court decision). “They only said that it was “foreign agents” and, therefore, it was necessary to take it,” explained Bella Nasibyan, who was taken to the Ministry of Internal Affairs for interrogation and then released. The journalist also said that her bank accounts were arrested the night before. They, according to her, got a debt of 5 million rubles: “Where he came from, no one said. On one of the arrested cards, I receive social payments for a child.”
Ms. Nasibyan also states that she does not know Ilya Ponomarev and does not administer his Internet channels, but writes in RusNews about the city’s social problems.
Recall that after the deprivation of parliamentary immunity in 2015, Ilya Ponomarev, at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office (during the investigation of the case of embezzlement of the Skolkovo Foundation), moved to the United States, and then to Kyiv. In August 2022, the former parliamentarian was arrested in absentia in Russia on charges of distributing fakes (under Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). In September, Ilya Ponomarev reported that a certain National Republican Army claimed responsibility for the murder in Russia of Daria Dugina (daughter of political scientist Alexander Dugin). Currently, Mr. Ponomarev is participating in hostilities on the territory of Ukraine on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Mass searches of journalists “look like an act of intimidation,” says Galina Arapova, head of the Media Rights Protection Center (both Ms. Arapova and her center are listed as foreign agents). She draws an analogy with the searches of journalists in Kazan in August 2022: “Everyone there is in the status of witnesses, equipment was confiscated from some.” The head of the Union of Journalists of Russia (UJR), Vladimir Solovyov, assured Kommersant that the legal aid center (open for journalists at the site of the UJR) did not receive any complaints on September 8 about a series of searches. “We are collecting information and details about what happened,” he said, noting that “comments or a statement” by the UJR will be given at a later date.
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