Russia

The man suspected of killing Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006 is hiding in Western Europe, Russia's chief criminal investigator said Tuesday, according to Reuters. Some details: "According to our information, the murderer is hiding in Western Europe," Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Prosecutor-General's investigation unit, was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency. "We even...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is disturbed by the closing of the alternative English-language biweekly the eXile in Moscow. The paper announced on its website last week that it was forced to shut down after nervous investors withdrew support in the wake of a politicised audit of its content. "Russian authorities are using politicized inspections and broadly worded extremism...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has denounced repeated efforts by authorities in the southern Russian republic of Ingushetia to shut down the regional news website Ingushetiya—one of the few remaining independent news outlets covering the volatile North Caucasus—for alleged extremism. On June 6, Kuntsevo district court in Moscow ordered the closure of the website, alleging it contained...

A Moscow-based English language newspaper which poked fun at Russia and the West has closed after its backers stopped funding it, its editor said on Monday, according to Reuters. Officials from a Russian government agency responsible for the media visited the offices of the Exile on June 5 and took away copies for analysis, scaring investors who have withdrawn their support, editor Mark Ames told...

The daily Nezavissimaya Gazeta has been ordered to vacate offices it rents from the city of Moscow within one month, in a move seen by press freedom advocates as worrying for press freedom in Russia. The notice to quit is supposedly to allow for major works in the building, but the paper’s management is convinced the decision is linked to recent articles critical of a speech by the mayor, Yuri...

A constitutional court Tuesday approved a petition by Manana Aslamazian, the former director of Internews Russia, ruling that article 188.1 of the criminal code, limiting the amount of currency that can be brought into the country, is unconstitutional. Internews Russia was closed in April 2007 after Aslamazian was charged with contraband under the article. “We welcome the constitutional court’s...

Russia's lower house of parliament voted Friday to widen the definition of slander and libel and give regulators the authority to shut down media outlets found guilty of publishing such material, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. The legislation, passed by the State Duma 339-1, is the latest attempt by the government to squeeze the country's increasingly embattled news media. Some details...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed concern at the harassment in Chechnya of Jane Armstrong, Moscow correspondent for the Canadian national daily the Globe and Mail. Armstrong and her Russian photographer and interpreter Olga Kravets had travelled from Moscow to the Chechen capital of Grozny to report on social and cultural traditions in the southern republic last week, when...

A proposed bill to amend the law on extremism will impose further restrictions on press freedom in Russia. Drafted by the prosecutor-general’s office, the bill was presented at a meeting organised by the Duma’s security committee on April 10. The proposed changes would allow prosecutors to exercise additional control over publications, especially websites. They would, for example, make it...

The Tajik Prosecutor-General's Office has charged two men with the murder of the Russian TV reporter, Ilyas Shurpayev, RIA Novosti has reported quoting a law enforcement source. "Masrurdzhon Yatimov and Nadzhmiddin Mukhiddinov have been charged under the provisions of Article 104/2 of the Penal Code of Tajikistan [premeditated murder with aggravating circumstances]," he said. The accused, both...