WARSAW, Poland: Three journalists working for independent Russian media outlets were arrested in Moscow on Monday outside a concert celebrating the Kremlin’s claimed annexation of Ukrainian regions, a rights group said.
The concert marked two years since Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees annexing the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Lugansk along with the southern Zaporijjia and Kherson regions on September 30, 2022.
Citing the detainees’ relatives, human rights NGO OVD-info said one of the journalists worked at the news site Republic and the other two for SOTAvision.
They were taken to a police station and two of them will be “charged with hooliganism,” the rights group said, adding that their mobile phones had been confiscated.
SOTAvision on Telegram said its reporters — who were denied access to the celebration on the capital’s Red Square — had been arrested while interviewing spectators leaving the concert.
The outlet is one of the last Russian media still working to document the Kremlin’s crackdown on dissent.
Since the launch of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin has intensified its pressure on both foreign and independent press outlets in the country.
Both Republic and SOTAvision are classed as “foreign agents” by the authorities — a label used in Russia against critical voices.
