Kirill Martynov. Screenshot: Novaya Gazeta Europe / YouTube
A court in Moscow has sentenced Novaya Gazeta Europe’s editor-in-chief Kirill Martynov in absentia to six years in prison for organising the activities of a so-called “undesirable” organisation.
Martynov, who has lived in Latvia since leaving Russia in early 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, was also banned from administering websites for three years. Prosecutors had originally requested that the court impose a sentence of seven years in prison.
Novaya Gazeta Europe was set up in Riga in April 2022 by editors and journalists from Novaya Gazeta who were forced to leave Russia following the imposition of wartime censorship and the effective criminalisation of independent journalism that followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office declared Novaya Gazeta Europe an “undesirable organisation” on 28 June 2023, a legal status that compels organisations to cease all activity and dissolve themselves in Russia, while also fining or imprisoning individuals with ties to the organisation in question. Other “undesirable organisations” in Russia include Transparency International, Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund.
On 19 September, the Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against Martynov for his role in managing two “undesirable organisations”, Novaya Gazeta Europe and the Free University, an online university set up to allow Russians access to learning without censorship, which he co-founded in 2020.
Martynov said on Tuesday that his lawyers would be appealing the verdict.
