Photo: Novaya Gazeta
Security forces raided the Moscow newsroom of Novaya Gazeta on Thursday, the Russian newspaper said.
Masked officers arrived around noon and began carrying out searches, the outlet reported on Telegram. "We don't know the reason — our lawyers are being refused entry to the office, where some of our staff are also present," it said.
State news agency RIA Novosti, citing law enforcement sources, reported that the searches may be linked to a case involving the alleged unlawful use of personal data.
According to the Russian Interior Ministry, a criminal case was opened on March 10 over similar charges.
"Investigative activities allowed us to identify a group of individuals who accessed personal data through illegal information resources," the ministry said in a statement, without specifying who the case targets. It added that security forces had determined that this personal data was being used to prepare articles containing "negative content about Russian citizens."
Later on Thursday, RIA Novosti reported that Novaya Gazeta journalist Oleg Roldugin had been detained for mishandling personal data and was being interrogated. Roldugin is one of the co-founders of the newspaper Sobesednik, where he wrote about corruption by Russian’s leaders. His stories in Novaya Gazeta have included investigations into the inner circle of Chechnya Governor Ramzan Kadyrov and Russia’s state-run messaging app Max.
In March 2022, part of Novaya Gazeta’s staff left Russia and established Novaya Gazeta Europe in Latvia to avoid complying with the Kremlin’s censorship laws. Novaya Gazeta’s website was blocked in Russia in November 2022, and its media license was revoked in February 2023.
TASS reported that Novaya Gazeta is also being investigated for possible ties to Novaya Gazeta Europe and the Russian Anti-War Committee.
