The journalist who filmed Alexei Navalny for the last time, arrested by the Russian authorities

Antonia Favorskaia was arrested on charges of ties to Alexei Navalny’s organization, which was declared “extremist” by the Russian authorities, The Guardian reports.

Favorskaia has been documenting the trials of Alexei Navalny for many years and is the one who filmed the last video in which the Russian dissident appears. According to Reporters Without Borders, she is one of six journalists who have been arrested in Russia this month.

The human rights organization OVD-Info specified that the Russian authorities cite as an argument the accusation of belonging to an “extremist organization” that the journalist posted on the social networks of the Anticorruption Foundation, the organization founded by Alexei Navalny. This is denied by Navalny’s spokeswoman who points out that Favorskaia has not published anything on the foundation’s platforms and is being targeted by the authorities for doing her job as a journalist.

The Russian dissident, the main opponent of Vladimir Putin died on February 16 at the age of 47, in a prison in the Arctic, in the Yamal region, where he was serving 19 years of imprisonment.

Favorskaia was initially detained by authorities on March 17 after placing flowers on the grave of Alexei Navalny, according to OVD-Info.

She spent 10 days in jail for disobeying the police, and when that sentence ended, the authorities detained her again. She is due to appear before a Moscow court on Friday.

Six journalists arrested in the last month

OVD-Info points out that the journalist’s arrest is part of a repression campaign carried out by the Russian authorities in which several journalists fell victim.

Two other journalists, Alexandra Astakhova and Anastasia Musatova, were briefly detained after they came to see Favorskaia at the detention center where she was incarcerated, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Ekaterina Anikievich, a journalist at the SOTAvision news site, and Konstantin Yarov of RusNews were also detained by police while reporting on the searches at Favorskaia’s home.

Yarov told RusNews that he was beaten during detention. “They kicked me, put their foot on my head, put their fingers over my head and taunted me as I tried to stand up asking me to show what I had in my bag because it might contain explosives “, the journalist said.

Also, in Ufa, a city 1,300 kilometers from Moscow, Olga Komleva, who also works for RusNews, was arrested on Wednesday. She too is accused of extremism and involvement in Navalnî’s organization.

Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation has been declared extremist by the Russian authorities, therefore those associated with the organization may face prison terms.