Five Russian journalists working for independent media were arrested

Five journalists working for the independent press were arrested on Wednesday evening and on Thursday in Russia, where repression against any challenge to the government is in full swing, writes Le Figaro.

During the night, the police arrested Ekaterina Anikievici from the SOTAvision news station and Konstantin Jarov from RusNews, announced 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 at the scene cited by the organization.

“They kicked me, put a foot on my head, twisted my fingers and made fun of me when I tried to get up,” Jarov was quoted as saying by his RusNews media organization. He said he suffered a head wound, abrasions, dislocated and sprained fingers.

Links with Navalnyi

According to him, the violence was provoked by filming near the home of another journalist, Antonina Favorskaia of SOTAvision, who was arrested on Wednesday evening immediately after being released after 10 days of administrative detention for disobeying police orders. The journalist’s apartment was searched on Wednesday evening, as was her parents’, said her lawyer, Mihail Biriukov, quoted by SOTAvision. Two other journalists, Alexandra Astahova and Anastasia Musatova, who had come to meet their colleague upon release from detention, were also arrested and taken to be questioned by investigators, according to the same source.

The Mediazona news site, which specializes in tracking court cases, says the case against Antonina Favorskaia is linked to the activities of the movement led by the opposition Alexei Navalnyi, who died in prison in February. His organizations are classified as “extremist” by the Russian judiciary. Antonina Favorskaia covered for years the trials in which Alexei Navalnyi was involved. She was the one 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 laying flowers on the opponent’s grave, according to Mediazona.