Berlin, September 20, 2024—Russian authorities have deployed laws penalizing “foreign agents,” “undesirable” organizations, and those who “discredit” the army to issue fines against 11 journalists, at least five of whom live in exile, and to retaliate against two media outlets in the last two months.
The latest figures show that Russia’s crackdown has continued apace since CPJ’s previous report in late July, which found that 13 exiled journalists had been targeted in the previous month.
Russian authorities have clamped down on independent reporting since their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 while journalists who have fled into exile have been hit with fines, arrest warrants, and jail terms in absentia.
Harassed as ‘foreign agents’
Russian authorities have designated hundreds of media outlets and journalists as “foreign agents,” requiring them to regularly submit detailed reports of their activities and expenses to authorities and to list their status on published content.
- On August 14, “foreign agent” Idris Yusupov of the independent outlet Novoye Delo was fined 30,000 rubles (US$330) for holding a solitary silent picket in Russia’s southwestern Republic of Dagestan calling for the release of jailed journalist Abdulmumin Gadzhiev and expressing support for Palestinians. “Foreign agents” are not allowed to organize public events.
- On August 21, exiled reporter Valeria Ratnikova, a “foreign agent” since December with the exiled “undesirable” and “foreign agent” broadcaster Dozhd TV, was fined 30,000 rubles (US$330) for failing to list her status on her content.
- On September 9, Roman Badanin, exiled editor-in-chief of the “undesirable” and “foreign agent” investigative outlet Proekt and a “foreign agent” himself since 2021, was fined 30,000 rubles (US$330) for failing to list his status on his content.
- On September 13, one of Russia’s last remaining independent print newspapers Sobesednik was designated a “foreign agent.” The outlet suspended publication while it challenges the decision in court.
Criminalized as ‘undesirable’
More than a dozen media outlets have been labeled “undesirable,” which means they are banned from operating in Russia. Anyone who participates in them faces fines or up to six years in prison. It is also a crime to distribute the outlets’ content.
The popular news site Meduza, whose CEO Galina Timchenko won CPJ’s 2022 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award, has been a key target. The Latvia-based outlet is both a “foreign agent” and an “undesirable” organization. Meduza’s website was blocked in Russia following its condemnation of the Ukraine war.
- On July 26, Aida Ivanova, editor-in-chief of the Siberian online outlet SakhaDay, was fined 10,000 rubles (US$109) for posting a Telegram link to Meduza.
- On July 30, Andrey Soldatov, exiled editor-in-chief of Agentura.ru, which documents the activities of Russian intelligence agencies, was fined 5,000 rubles (US$55) for his reporting and podcast for Meduza.
- On July 30, Meduza’s exiled journalist Svetlana Reiter was fined 5,000 rubles (US$55) for her reporting, including an interview with the late opposition leader Alexey Navalny’s lawyer.
- On July 30, Andrey Nikiforov, editor-in-chief of the online Yakutskoye-Sakha Information Agency (YASIA) was fined 20,000 rubles (US$219) for posting a Meduza link.
- On August 23, Tuyara Innokentyeva was fined 15,000 rubles (US$164) for publishing three links to Meduza in 2020 as the administrator of a now-defunct Telegram channel of the independent newspaper Aartyk.ru based in northeastern Sakha Republic.
- On September 13, the prosecutor general’s office designated the Poland-based TV channel Belsat as “undesirable,” saying that it had created a negative image of Russia and criticized its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
‘Discrediting’ the Russian army
- Following a police raid on their homes and office in May, the independent newspaper Qirim’s founder Seyran Ibrahimov and editor-in-chief Bekir Mamutov were fined a total of 790,000 rubles (US$8,680) for four offences between June 7 and August 27 for “discrediting” the Russian army and “abusing” media freedom.
Qirim covers issues affecting the Crimean Tatar ethnic minority in the Ukrainian peninsula seized by Moscow in 2014. The offending articles included a United Nations report on the humanitarian situation in Crimea and an opinion piece on the mobilization of Crimean Tatars into the Russian army in 2022.
“Fines must be paid within two months of a court decision or they will double,” Ibrahimov told CPJ, adding that the amounts were “unaffordable” for the journalists and that non-payment could result in asset seizure.
- On August 16, Pavel Dmitriev, an exiled journalist with Pskovskaya Guberniya newspaper, was fined 30,000 rubles (US$330) for “discrediting” the Russian army in a YouTube video where he criticized President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine. The exiled outlet has faced multiple criminal charges and raids.