A second journalist was arrested and placed in preventive detention, accused of extremism for having participated in the creation of videos for the team’s YouTube channel. late opponent Alexei Navalny.
Sergey Karelin, 41, will be detained until at least June 27, pending trial, the press service of the Moscow courts said on Saturday, on the messaging platform Telegram.
The journalist is accused of “participation in the preparation of photos and videos” for a channel on the YouTube platform used by the Foundation for Combating Corruption, created by Navalny, which was banned by Russian authorities, the courts indicated.
Karelin, who has dual Israeli nationality, was detained on Friday night in the Murmansk region, in northern Russia.
The journalist worked for several media outlets, including the Associated Press news agency, and was a camera operator for Deutsche Welle until the Kremlin banned the German public broadcaster from operating in Russia in February 2022.
“The Associated Press is very concerned about the detention of Russian video journalist Sergey Karelin,” the agency said in a statement. “We are looking for additional information,” he added.
Also on Saturday, another journalist, Konstantin Gabov, was arrested and placed in pre-trial detention on the same charge.
Gabov collaborated with several media companies, including the Russian television channels Moskva 24 and MIR and the Belarusian agency Belsat, according to Russian media.
The Russian government’s repression of dissent and independent media intensified after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia has passed laws criminalizing what it considers false information about the military or statements seen as discrediting the military, effectively banning any criticism of the war in Ukraine or speech that deviates from the official narrative.
A journalist for the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, Sergei Mingazov, has been detained on charges of spreading false information about the Russian military, his lawyer said on Friday.
In late March, a photojournalist, Antonina Kravtsova, working under the name Antonina Favorskaïa, was also detained on charges of extremism.
Several other journalists are detained in Russia, including American Evan Gershkovich, the target of espionage accusations, which he rejects, like the media outlets he worked for, his family and the American authorities.
Alexei Navalny died in February under unclear circumstances in an Arctic prison. His movement has been classified as extremist by the courts, which puts his collaborators and supporters at risk of being prosecuted.
Most of the opponent’s associates are in exile abroad, while others have received long prison sentences.
Tags: Russian journalists detained creating videos Navalnys team
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