Russian Authorities have recently Targeted Several Russian Journalists Working for Western Publications

The Institute of the Study of War has reported the following:

Western and Russian opposition media widely reported that Russian authorities recently arrested Sergei Karelin, who previously worked with the Associated Press (AP) and Deutsche Welle, and Konstantin Gabov, who previously worked with Reuters, on charges of working with an “extremist organization” for their previous work with the Anti-Corruption Fund founded by deceased Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

A Russian court also recently placed Forbes Russia journalist Sergei Mingazov under house arrest for allegedly spreading false information about the Russian military by reposting news articles about the Russian military’s massacres in Bucha on his Telegram channel.

Russian opposition outlet Mediazona reported on April 26 that Russian courts have charged more people with ”participating” in ”undesirable” Russian opposition and foreign media organizations so far in 2024 than were charged with such crimes in 2022 or 2023.

ISW has recently reported on the Kremlin’s effort to increasingly use the vague “extremism” legal definition to increasingly prosecute anti-war sentiment, and the arrests of Karelin and Gabov in particular demonstrate one such application of this