Russian police conduct mass searches at homes of reporters tied to RFE/RL

Police have conducted mass searches at homes of reporters working with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Tatar-inform reports without providing names.

Law enforcement officers came to the home of sociologist, columnist of Idel.Realii news outlet and author of Novaya Gazeta Iskander Yasaveyev, as well as four reporters who do freelance work for RFE/RL. OVD-Info, a Russian human rights group that monitors political arrests, suggests that one of the people whose homes were searched was Marina Yudkevich, a reporter with Tatpolit news portal, who also works for the Tatar-language version of the Idel.Realii website.

According to Tatar-inform, the police searches were carried out in relation to a criminal case “on the justification of terrorism and violence against government representatives”. The news portal claims that police found

Tatar-inform added that “pictures of cartoon characters and Lucifer” were also found at their homes.

Police came to Iskander Yasaveyev’s home at 6 a.m. They seized his and his family’s phones and later brought the reporter to the Investigative Committee.

In late February, Yasaveyev was detained with a sign that read: “This is a war, not a special operation. No to war.” He was arrested for five days for “violating the rules of assembly”.