Russia outlaws student news outlet Doxa as ‘undesirable organization’

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has designated the independent student media outlet Doxa as an “undesirable organization,” making it illegal for the publication to operate on Russian territory under threat of felony prosecution.

The Russian State Duma’s anti-foreign-interference committee, which requested the designation, claimed Doxa is involved in “training for subversive activities on Russian territory,” including by publishing “instructions for arson of conscription offices, police stations, and military vehicles; calls for Russian military personnel to surrender to the Armed Forces of Ukraine; and materials for resisting law enforcement agencies and capturing universities.”

Doxa was founded in 2017 by students at Moscow's Higher School of Economics. While the outlet initially covered traditional student issues, in the summer of 2019 it began reporting on the protests in response to alleged violations by the authorities ahead of that year’s Moscow City Duma elections. In December 2019, the university revoked the publication’s student organization status.

In 2021, the Russian authorities charged Doxa editors Vladimir Metelkin, Alla Gutnikova, Armen Aramyan, and Natalya Tyshkevich with involving minors in criminal activities. In 2022, the editors were all sentenced to two years of correctional labor. Gutnikova, Aramyan, and Tyshkevich have left the country.