This screenshot from a post from the Telegram channel “SOTAvision” shows the arrest of Antonina Favorskaya on March 27, 2024.
Image: SOTAvision
Antonina Favorskaya recorded the last video of Alexei Navalnyj in a courtroom. A day later he died in the prison camp. Now she has been arrested. She and other arrested journalists face years of imprisonment.
RRussia's rulers continue to take action against critical voices remaining in the country. The latest means of choice are allegations that two journalists worked for the Foundation for the Fight against Corruption (FBK) of the opposition activist Alexei Navalnyj, who died suddenly in custody in mid-February, and which has been considered “extremist” since 2021. Antonina Favorskaya from Moscow and Olga Komlyeva, who were both arrested on Wednesday, now face years of imprisonment.
The action against the two journalists is also directed against their media, “Sotavision” and “Rusnews”. They specialize in reports on timid protests, trials, police operations and repression and reach their audience primarily via Telegram. There, “Sotavision” has a good 33,000 subscribers and “Rusnews” almost 27,000. Compared to the media power of President Vladimir Putin's apparatus, this is very small, which once again illustrates how resistant those in power have become to any criticism.