Russian authorities detained Sergey Karelin, a freelance videographer who has worked for The Associated Press news agency and German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW), in the northern region of Murmansk on April 26, 2024.
The following day, Russian courts placed Karelin and freelance journalist Konstantin Gabov in two months of pretrial detention, which has since been extended several times, most recently from October 2 until March 17, 2025.
Karelin and Gabov, who has also worked for several international news outlets, both face “extremism” charges for allegedly preparing videos for Navalny LIVE, a YouTube channel run by supporters of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in prison in February.
Both Karelin and Gabov denied the charges. If convicted, the two journalists could each face up to six years in prison under Article 282.1, Part 2 of Russia’s criminal code. CPJ was unable to determine exactly what materials the men were accused of producing.
The AP said that it was “very concerned” by Karelin’s detention and was “seeking additional information.”
In September, Karelin’s case was sent to court and combined with Gabov’s and the cases against Artyom Krieger and Antonina Favorskaya, journalists with independent news outlet SOTAvision who are also accused of cooperating with Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK). The trial of the four journalists started behind closed doors on October 2.
In early November, the journalists’ lawyers told independent news outlet RusNews that the four of them were feeling “fine.”
In late 2024, CPJ emailed the Moscow branch of Russia’s Investigative Committee for comment but received no response.