Masked security agents raid Russian newspaper in Moscow and arrest journalist
MOSCOW, April 9 (Reuters) – Security officers raided the Moscow office of leading independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta on Thursday and state media said a prominent journalist was arrested.
State news agency RIA quoted law enforcement officials as saying reporter Oleg Roldugin was being questioned for alleged misuse of personal data.
He posted a short video showing a man being forcibly taken to a van by several masked security guards and huddled inside.
Russia has tightened censorship laws and increased pressure on independent media since launching a war on Ukraine in 2022.
Separately, Russia’s FSB security service said on Thursday it had detained a former Radio Free Europe freelance journalist on suspicion of treason for passing information to Ukrainian intelligence.
In another move to suppress dissent, Russia’s Supreme Court ruled on the same day that leading human rights group Memorial was an extremist movement, paving the way for the prosecution of anyone who supported it, donated to it or shared its materials.
NEWSPAPER EDITOR WON THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
The arrested journalist, Roldugin, previously ran a weekly newspaper called Sobesednik, whose publisher was labeled a “foreign agent” months after publishing a front-page story about the death in a penal colony of prominent dissident Alexei Navalny in 2024. Later that year it was forced to suspend publication.
The journalist recently published an article in Novaya Gazeta investigating how the former aide of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s nephew was able to buy one of the most expensive penthouses in Russia.
Novaya Gazeta said that Roldugin was taken in for questioning after a search of his apartment on Thursday morning. The newspaper added that it could not confirm whether the searches at his office were linked to his case.
Novaya Gazeta is one of Russia’s best-known investigative news channels. Dmitry Muratov, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, was the joint winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize and dedicated the award to six journalists killed for their work at his newspaper.
Muratov was designated a “foreign agent” in 2023, a label that authorities apply to individuals and organizations they believe are carrying out anti-Russian activities with support from abroad.
It was not possible for him to comment on the raid on the newspaper on Thursday.
(Reporting by Reuters, Writing by Mark Trevelyan in London, Editing by Keith Weir)
