Moscow police visit the home of ‘Meduza’ correspondent Kristina Safonova

On Tuesday, April 27, a district police officer visited the Moscow home of Meduza special correspondent Kristina Safonova.

Safonova told Meduza that the officer identified himself as Evgeny Reshetnyak. According to information available through open sources, this is also the name of a person who works for the Interior Ministry Department for Moscow’s Zapadnoye Degunino District.

The reason for the police visit remains unknown.

Lawyer Alexey Pryanishnikov from the human rights group “Pravozaschita Otkrytki” was on his way to Safonova’s home at the time of writing.

The police officer left after phoning his superiors, telling Kristina Safonova that “they will call” her. The police officer also said that he didn’t know why he was sent to Safonova’s home.

Update. Later on Tuesday, Kristina Safonova was contacted by the Molzhaninovsky District Police Department. She was asked to send in documents confirming that she attended the protest rally on April 21 as a journalist. She was also summoned to appear at the police station on April 28 “to testify.”

Earlier in the day on April 27, police officers visited the homes of reporters from Dozhd, Ekho Moskvy, and Komsomolskaya Pravda, who covered the solidarity protests in support of jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny on April 21. Kristina Safonova also attended the demonstrations as a member of the press. 

On April 23, the Russian Justice Ministry announced that Meduza had been added to its list of “foreign agent” media organizations. Our editorial office plans to challenge this decision in court.