‘Buy a New SIM Card’ and Await Further Interrogation: Russia’s Security Services Detain and Question a Reporter · Global Voices
<PERSON>, a member of the independent Journalists’ and Media Workers’ Union, pickets the headquarters of Russia's domestic security agency FSB, to protest against a colleague's detention. Photo by <PERSON>, used with permission.
When state security officers arrived at his home early in the morning of January 31, Russian journalist <PERSON> learned firsthand that punishment is not always timely.
<PERSON>, a co-chair of the Journalists and Media Workers Union in Russia, was visited by members of the FSB, one of Russia’s security services, who searched his apartment and seized several of <PERSON>'s possessions including laptops, documents and copies of his independent magazine, Moloko Plus.
Posting on his channel on Telegram, a widely-used messenger service in Russia, <PERSON> told his subscribers that the search was related to Article 205.3 of Russia's criminal code, a statute that deals with “undergoing training for the purpose of committing terrorist activity.” This was confirmed by a lawyer from Open Russia, an organization dedicated to the promotion of democracy and human rights in the Russian Federation.
<PERSON> also took to Twitter to tell everyone the reason for the visit:
У меня обыск. Доброе утро. В рамках текста в The new times. Телефон отбирают.
— паша никулин (@mrzff) 31 января 2018 г.
They’re searching my apartment. 880
Good morning. For my article in The New Times. They’re taking away the phone.
The article in question, “From Kaluga With Jihad”, drew on an interview <PERSON> had conducted with a Russian national from the Kaluga region, who went to Syria to fight for the Al-Nusra Front, a splinter faction of al-Qaeda. When it was published in March of 2017 in The New Times, the interview immediately drew the attention of the Russian authorities.
Roskomnadzor, Russia's media regulator, issued a warning to The New Times for “signs of justifying terrorism” in the interview. The piece was later removed from The New Times’ website.
As The New Times’ chief editor later wrote on Facebook:
Путин публично говорит о том, что тысячи россиян воюют за ИГ, а писать о мотивах, почему русский парень из Калуги принимает ислам и уезжает воевать в Сирию — это „признаки оправдания терроризма“! По мне так это классическая цензура, которая запрещена Конституцией.
<PERSON> publicly says that thousands of Russians are fighting for the Islamic State, but writing about motives, why a Russian guy from Kaluga accepts Islam and goes off to fight in Syria is “signs of justifying terrorism”! I feel this classic censorship, which is banned by the Constitution. 880