Russia / Europe & Central Asia

  

Russia charges three suspects over 2010 attack on reporter Oleg Kashin

New York, September 9, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the announcement that authorities have detained three suspects in the November 2010 attack that severely injured Russian reporter Oleg Kashin. CPJ urges Russian investigators to further investigate the case and bring all those responsible to justice.

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CPJ welcomes sentence of murder mastermind in Russia

New York, July 24, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the sentencing to life in prison today of a Russian nationalist leader in connection with the 2009 fatal attack on human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, in which Novaya Gazeta journalist Anastasiya Baburova was also killed. The Moscow City Court ruled that Ilya Goryachev, a leader…

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Russian journalist detained, beaten in eastern Ukraine

New York, June 17, 2015–A correspondent for the independent Moscow-based Novaya Gazeta was obstructed and briefly detained by the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, according to news reports. Pavel Kanygin, a special correspondent for the newspaper, said he was beaten and interrogated in custody and then forced to leave the…

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CPJ condemns death threats against Elena Milashina, calls for investigation

New York, June 11, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns death threats issued against Elena Milashina, an award-winning investigative reporter for the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and Moscow correspondent for CPJ, and calls on authorities to ensure her safety.

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CPJ condemns Putin’s decree banning coverage of military casualties

New York, May 28, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today’s presidential decree that extends a ban on coverage of military casualty figures to “peacetime, during special operations,” as well as in wartime. Such coverage, deemed to be disclosure of state secrets, is punishable by prison terms up to 20 years, according to local press…

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Moscow court closes case against accused mastermind in Domnikov murder

New York, May 14, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists is dismayed that the statute of limitations in the case of the 2000 killing of a Russian journalist ran out with authorities failing to take timely action against the individual accused of being the mastermind.

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In Crimea, press freedom deteriorates at a rapid pace

Dear President Vladimir Putin: The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide, is writing to express its concern about the deteriorating climate for press freedom in Crimea.

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Russian opposition leader and anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny, right, talks with his brother and co-defendant Oleg inside a defendants' cage during a court hearing in Moscow on December 30, 2014. (Reuters/Sergei Karpukhin)

The death of glasnost: How Russia’s attempt at openness failed

Before Maidan, before Tahrir Square, before the “color revolutions” that overthrew entrenched autocrats, there was the Soviet revolution of the late 1980s.

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A masked pro-Russian protester poses for a photo inside a regional government building overtaken by his group in Donetsk, Ukraine, on April 25, 2014. (Reuters/Marko Djurica)

Media wars create information vacuum in Ukraine

More than a year after the December 2013 mass attack against journalists at Kiev’s Maidan Square, which coincided with the Ukrainian police’s violent dispersal of protesters rallying against the policies of then-President Viktor Yanukovych, the press in the beleaguered nation continue the battle for survival. The biggest problem remains impunity in attacks against journalists.

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Russian blogger beaten and warned to leave Dagestan

New York, April 8, 2015–A Russian blogger is under police guard in hospital after being abducted and attacked by at least three masked men in Derbent, in the southern republic of Dagestan, on Sunday, according to news reports citing his account. Vyacheslav Starodubets was forced into a car and taken to the outskirts of the…

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