Russian authorities detained five journalists this Wednesday, all of them belonging to independent media outlets not related to the Kremlin. According to the human rights organization OVD-Info, at least one of them was attacked.
This wave of arrests comes shortly after Putin's disputed victory in the elections and the terrorist attack against Crocus City Hall, which left more than a hundred victims dead. These events, along with the war in Ukraine, have led to an increase in security and internal repression in Russia.
A lawyer was allowed to see journalist Antonina Favorskaya
The security forces forbade anyone else from entering the house. So, the lawyer’s assistant and our journalist remained on the street#JournalismIsNotACrime #russia pic.twitter.com/osa0CaeX8s
— SOTA English (@sotavisioneng) March 27, 2024
According to AFP, SOTAvision journalist Antonina Favorskaya was interrogated on Wednesday night after spending 10 days under arrest for placing flowers on the grave of Alexei Navalny, who died in suspicious circumstances last February, at the hands of the Putin regime, according to his family and staff.
Alexandra Astakhova and Anastasia Musatova, colleagues of Antonina Favorskaya, went to see her at the detention center when she was to be released. They were also arrested by the police, SOTAvision reported.
Ekaterina Anikievitch of SOTAvision and Konstantin Zharov of RusNews were arrested Thursday morning while filming near Favorskaya's house, according to OVD-Info, which monitors repression in Russia. This brings the number of journalists detained to five.
Journalist Konstantin Zharov told RusNews why they may have been arrested, although according to OVD-Info the reasons are unclear. "They told us that we were drug addicts, that we were lazing around without a clear purpose," he said in statements reported by AFP. "They did not make an arrest report, but they did kick me, put their foot on my head, twisted my fingers, mocked me when I tried to get up and demanded to see my backpack as if it had explosives," he told the outlet.
