Police file charges against team of new magazine issued by Novaya Gazeta in Russia for ‘discrediting’ army

Police have filed charges against the team of Novaya Rasskaz-Gazeta, a new magazine issued by the team of Novaya Gazeta (Moscow), for “discrediting” the Russian army, the editorial office reports.

According to Russia’s censorship agency Roskomnadzor, articles written by Aleksandr Minkin, Andrei Kolesnikov and Kirill Fokin contain information that “discredits” the Russian armed forces. They were published in the first print issue of the magazine and on the project’s website. None of the articles mention the war in Ukraine, the Russian army, the National Guard or the Federal Security Service (FSB).

“An official that goes by the surname Wagner wrote a letter to Deputy Interior Minister Gorovoy with a request to launch administrative proceedings. And so they did. The letter went down all the way to the Moscow’s Central Administrative District police directorate,” the team of Novaya Rasskaz-Gazeta said.

Police told the journalists that Wagner’s request included three “express reports” by anonymous authors. According to them, the texts contained “linguistic and psychological features of verbal discreditation of the actions of the Russian Federation’s official bodies aimed to carry out the special operation in Ukraine”.

On 15 July, the team of Novaya Gazeta (Moscow) that was forced to suspend its work for a time, announced the launch of a new magazine called Novaya Rasskaz-Gazeta. On 24 July, Roskomnadzor blocked the magazine’s website on request of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office.

“The Prosecutor General’s Office has decided that our new website Novaya.no needs to be shut down. For ‘discrediting’ [the Russian army]. Without an explanation what it entails. They demanded to block access not to a separate text or texts, but to the entire website at once. Clearly, they did this because of our way of thinking,” the statement by the journalists reads.