Home search of Russian investigative journalists – NRC

Russian security agents Conducted home searches on Tuesday morning Osten With two investigative journalists in Moscow. Raids on journalists The project (The project) came shortly after the publication of an investigation into the belongings of the Russian Interior Minister and his links with criminals.

Proekt is an independent research platform, founded in 2018. About fifteen journalists do a lot of research on the relationships between politics, business and the mafia. Last year they broke the news of Putin’s secret daughter. The searches took place at the home of founder and editor-in-chief Roman Badanin and journalist Maria Zgolubova. Deputy editor-in-chief Mikhail Rubin was also arrested for questioning. Proekt’s website was down briefly on Tuesday.

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According to Badanin’s lawyers, the official indictment revolves around a 2017 film by Proekt about Ilya Traber, a controversial St Petersburg businessman and friend of Putin. Journalists are suspected of defamation. Zgolubova told Russian media she had no doubts that the home searches were really related to the new investigation.

Spacious country house

In the search done so far From the project site As can be seen on YouTube, it is about the secret villas of Vladimir Kolokoltsev, a former policeman and Minister of the Interior since May 2012. Kolokoltsev’s son Alexander, 32, owns a spacious country house outside Moscow worth 13.8 million euros, according to Proekt, a gift from the criminal group Izmailovskaya. The land registry does not mention anything about the villa. Another house worth 2.3 million euros in the name of his sister-in-law, but in fact it will be owned by Kolokoltsev.

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Russia’s independent media is likely to expose politicians’ corruption through their origins. Previous disclosure of the Anti-Corruption Foundation FBK Written by Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny on the fortunes of then-Prime Minister Medvedev and President Putin, it has drawn attention within Russia and abroad.

Since the beginning of this year, the repression of independent media in Russia has increased sharply. Journalists are intimidated and arrested – temporarily or otherwise. media like VTimes On Jellyfish They were labeled a “foreign agent”, causing advertisers to withdraw. VTimes has since been discontinued. Everything indicates that the Putin government wants to suppress criticism as much as possible in the run-up to the parliamentary elections in September.