| schema:articleBody
| - Russian police on Tuesday questioned several investigative journalists and raided their apartments as authorities pile fresh pressure on independent media. Proyekt (The Project), one of Russia's last remaining independent media outlets specialising in in-depth investigations, said that police raided the homes of its chief editor Roman Badanin, deputy editor Mikhail Rubin and reporter Maria Zholobova. All three were questioned later in the day, with police confiscating their computers and phones. The searches came ahead of the publication of an investigation into the alleged wealth of Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, his son and other relatives, Proyekt said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that there were "legal grounds" for such searches even though he was not aware of the reason for them. Badanin is a witness in a defamation case dating back to 2017. In 2017, Dozhd TV, an independent channel, broadcast an investigation into Ilya Traber, a controversial businessman who allegedly has ties to President Vladimir Putin. The film was authored by Badanin, who was then Dozhd editor-in-chief, as well as Zholobova and other journalists. Rubin was not part of that project. The interior ministry said in a statement that the searches were part of an ongoing probe. A statute of limitations expired in the case in 2019, said lawyer Pavel Chikov, who heads the human rights association Agora. Rubin's lawyer Artyom Nemov said he did not know what the searches at his client's home were linked to. "It's a mystery to us," he told AFP. Putin's spokesman said the president knew Traber's name but it was not known if the two were on friendly terms. Supporters praised the journalists' professionalism, calling them the latest victims of a sprawling clampdown on dissent. "This is what the official recognition of a journalist's professional achievements looks like in modern Russia," said opposition city lawmaker Yulia Galyamina. Badanin founded Proyekt after leaving Dozhd TV and studying at Stanford. Since 2018 Proyekt has published a number of high-profile investigations into the Russian elite, in some cases claiming to show how family members are used to hide wealth. One report alleged that Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov has a second wife, while another claimed that Putin has a secret third daughter with a longtime girlfriend. Neither relationship has been clearly established. Kremlin critics say that during his two decades in power Putin has silenced most dissidents and muzzled the media. The few opposition and independent media outlets still operating in Russia are under huge pressure, Kremlin opponents say. In April, authorities designated Meduza, a popular Russian-language news website based in Latvia, a "foreign agent", forcing it to launch a crowdfunding campaign to survive the loss of advertising revenue. The next month another independent online media outlet, VTimes, received the same tag and shut down in June. Groups or individuals identified as "foreign agents" in Russia must disclose their sources of funding and label publications with the relevant tag or face fines. The designation is seen as a deterrent for advertisers and sources. Russia will hold parliamentary elections in September, and ahead of the polls authorities declared the organisations of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny extremist and barred his allies from running. Top Navalny ally Ivan Zhdanov has been put on an international wanted list, his lawyer Vladimir Voronin said Tuesday. Zhdanov, who heads Navalny's anti-corruption foundation, is a target of several criminal probes. as/emg/tgb
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)