Five journalists working for independent media were arrested Wednesday evening and Thursday in Russia, where repression targeting any challenge to power is in full swing. During the night, the police arrested Ekaterina Anikievitch from the media SOTAvision and Konstantin Jarov from RusNews, reported the NGO OVD-Info, which specializes in monitoring repression in Russia. Jarov was beaten and threatened with sexual violence by the police, according to a witness to the scene cited by this organization.
“They hit me with their feet, put a foot on my head, twisted my fingers, laughed at me when I tried to get up,”
Jarov said, quoted by his media RusNews. He said he had a head injury, abrasions, dislocated fingers and sprains.
Related to Alexei Navalny
According to him, this violence was provoked by filming carried out near the home of another journalist, Antonina Favorskaïa of SOTAvision, who was arrested on Wednesday evening immediately after being released after 10 days of administrative detention for disobedience to the police. This journalist's apartment was searched Wednesday evening, as was that of her parents, said her lawyer Mikhail Birioukov, cited by SOTAvision. Two other journalists, Alexandra Astakhova and Anastassia Moussatova, who had come to meet their colleague after he was released from detention, were also arrested and taken to be questioned by investigators, according to the same source.
According to the Mediazona news website, which specializes in monitoring legal cases, the case targeting Favorskaya is linked to the activities of the movement of opponent Alexeï Navalny, who died in prison in February. His organizations are classified as
“extremist”
by Russian justice. Antonina Favorskaya has been covering the trials involving Alexeï Navalny for years. It was she who shot the last video showing the opponent still alive, on February 15 during a court hearing. She was arrested on March 17, a few hours after placing flowers on the opponent's grave, according to Mediazona.