Russian federal agents arrest at least half a dozen Telegram channel administrators involved in anti-corruption reporting

In the past week, federal agents in Russia have arrested the administrators of at least half a dozen popular Telegram channels, according to multiple reports. On Wednesday, a court in Moscow jailed three of these people: journalist Alexandra Bayazitova, media expert Olga Arkharova, and publicist Inna Churilova. Only Bayazitova has maintained her innocence against charges that she extorted money from Promsvyazbank. (Case records identify the victim of the alleged extortion as Alexander Ushakov, a senior manager at the state-owned bank.)

Speaking in court during her arraignment, Bayazitova (who has diabetes and struggles with mobility) said all she did was publish evidence that Promsvyazbank executives are involved in embezzling federal money allocated to Russia’s defense industry.

Journalists reported earlier in the week that the authorities had arrested numerous Telegram channel administrators on charges of demanding money from Rostec’s press service in exchange for not publishing negative claims about the company. Other reports claimed that the suspects would face charges for “promoting a pro-Ukrainian agenda and spreading false information to destabilize the situation in Russia.”

Also on Wednesday, a different district court in Moscow jailed another three Telegram administrators on large-scale fraud charges. These suspects — all managers at the Project Scanner channel — reportedly work for the Narodnye Novosti publishing house, which belongs to a media group owned by catering, propaganda, and mercenary tycoon Evgeny Prigozhin. (Prigozhin denies any connection to the arrests.)