'You're even stupider than we thought' Police raid the homes of journalists throughout Russia in a possible bid to build a case against a Kyiv-based Russian ex-lawmaker
On the morning of September 8, Russian police raided the homes of journalists in multiple Russian cities, including Vecherniy Vedomosti editor-in-chief Vladislav Postnikov in Yekaterinburg, 86.ru employee Yulia Glazova in Tyumen, and RusNews journalist Bella Nasibyan in Rostov-na-Donu.
In the Moscow region, investigators searched the homes of five employees from the outlet Odintsovo-INFO as well as that of Viktor Zyryanov, who runs the Orlets Telegram channel. In the Oryol region, police raided the home of activist Sergey Nosov, and in Moscow proper, they visited photographer Ruslan Sukhushin.
After his home was searched, Vladislav Postnikov went to a police station for questioning. Ruslan Sukhushin was taken in for interrogation by police, and Bella Nasibyan was taken to an unknown location.
A source from Russian law enforcement told RIA Novosti that the common thread between the journalists is their alleged connections to February Morning, a media project founded by former State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev. According to the source, many of the journalists whose homes were raided are thought by the authorities to be working anonymously as administrators for February Morning's Telegram and YouTube channels. Another source told the outlet that the moderators of the Telegram channel for the Freedom for Russian legion, a group of Russian defectors and volunteers fighting alongside the Ukrainian army, had their homes raided in Moscow. The legion, he said, is linked to "Ukrainian nationalists," and investigators believe Ponomarev was serving as the consultant.
The February Morning Telegram channel claimed to have no connection to the journalists who were searched, and its administrators called the raids “repressions against independent media.” “Under the guise of a fight against ‘fake news about the army,’ they’re conducting a total purge of independent journalism in Russia's regions,” read the post.
Other reports suggest most of the raids were conducted in connection with criminal charges Ponomarev is facing for allegedly sharing “disinformation” about the Russian army. Investigators allege that Postnikov, who is serving as a witness in the case, gave Ponomarev the materials he used to “discredit” the army. Postnikov, however, said he doesn't know Ponomarev, hasn't run any of his Telegram channels, and doesn't support his views.
The searches of the Odintsovo-INFO employees’ homes were carried out in connection to another “disinformation” case — this one launched in response to materials the outlet published about the war in Ukraine. It’s unclear whether that case has any link to Ponomarev.
Ilya Ponomarev stands accused of distributing “disinformation” about the Russian army for reasons of political hatred. News of the case first broke in late August, when a Moscow court arrested the former deputy in absentia.
The search warrant against Postnikov indicates that the case against Ponomarev was opened on August 9. Investigators allege that between March 5 and March 17, Ponomarev spread “knowing false information” on YouTube about the murders of civilians near Kyiv and in Mariupol, Russian shelling of the Zaporizhzhia NPP, and cases of looting and burglary among Russian soldiers.
Ilya Ponomarev became a Russian State Duma deputy in 2017. In March 2014, he was the only parliament member to vote against the Russian annexation of Crimea. Soon after, Ponomarev left Russia, and in 2019, he was granted Ukrainian citizenship. In 2015, the Russian investigative Committee opened a criminal case against Ponomarev for embezzlement and put out an international warrant for his arrest.
In August, the day after Eurasianist philosopher Alexander Dugin's daughter Daria Dugina was killed in a car explosion, Ponomarev claimed that the assassination was the work of a group called the National Republican Army (NRA), though there were no previous mentions of the group on the Internet.
Ponomarev later reported that the NRA and two other organizations plan to create a Kyiv-based political center for a “Russian armed opposition that will wage war against the Putin regime on both sides of the front.” On September 8, it was reported that the NRA and the Russian Freedom Legion signed an agreement to create a single political organization that will be headed by Ponomarev. The new entity will also reportedly include the Russian Volunteer Corps, a unit of Russians fighting alongside the Ukrainian army.
“You’re looking in the wrong place!” Ponomarev said of Thursday's raids against journalists. “The February Morning network continues to operate in all regions. We’re 34 strong. And if you’re looking for NRA cells among regional journalists, you’re even stupider than we thought!” he wrote on Twitter.
