MOSCOW (Reuters) – Roman Dobrokhotov, editor-in-chief of investigative media outlet The Insider, said on Wednesday that Russian police were searching his apartment, a move allies said looked like part of a crackdown against media that have offended the authorities.
The Insider is an online outlet that has published stories about the lives of Russia’s secretive elite and collaborated with Bellingcat, an outlet whose investigations into Moscow’s intelligence services have been condemned by Russian state officials as Western propaganda, something it denies.
The Insider, which was last week added to a justice ministry list of “foreign agents” ahead of parliamentary elections in September, has also worked with Bellingcat on projects including an investigation into what Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny says was an attempt to kill him.
The ‘foreign agent’ term carries negative Soviet-era connotations and subjects those designated to extra government scrutiny.
Dobrokhotov posted his home address on Twitter and said police searches were under way there. There was no immediate comment from the police.
“A lawyer wouldn’t hurt,” Dobrokhotov wrote.
Sergei Ezhov, a colleague, said Dobrokhotov had been planning to leave Russia later on Wednesday.
The state TASS news agency cited Dobrokhotov’s lawyer as saying a slander case had been launched against him recently due to allegations made in an article about the cooperation of a Dutch journalist with the Russian security service.
The RIA news agency said Dobrokhotov could face up to two years in jail if found guilty.
(Reporting by Maxim Rodionov/Writing by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
