Сriminal case opened against Novaya Gazeta Europe editor-in-chief Kirill Martynov in Russia

Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case against Novaya Gazeta Europe editor-in-chief Kirill Martynov for running “an undesirable organisation”, state news agency TASS reported on Thursday.

Martynov’s association with both Novaya Gazeta Europe and the Free University, which he co-founded, was cited by TASS as the reason that criminal proceedings were being initiated against him. Both organisations have been deemed “undesirable” in Russia, effectively making them illegal.

Commenting on the news on X, Martynov, who has lived outside Russia since 2022, said that the case against him had “elements of comedy”, adding that “given how many tragedies people go through every day, I can only thank the Russian Federation for this laughable imitation of activity.”

“Before the war, I taught philosophy and worked in the media, and now both of these things have been equated to ‘organising criminal groups’,” Martynov added. “My activity hasn’t changed, but our state has gone off the rails, killing people and considering those who oppose those killings to be criminals.”

In April, a member of Russia’s lower house of parliament, Andrey Lugovoy, publicly called for an investigation into Martynov, accusing Novaya Gazeta Europe of being “at the forefront of anti-Russian propaganda” and of advocating the violent overthrow of the Russian government.

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office branded Novaya Gazeta Europe “undesirable” in June 2023, a label that has been applied to many independent media outlets, including Meduza, The Insider, and Bellingcat, as well as multiple non-governmental organisations such as Greenpeace and the WWF.

While there have been cases of people being fined for reposting content from media outlets branded “undesirable”, BBC News Russian said on Thursday that this was likely the first time a criminal case had been opened against the editor-in-chief of an “undesirable” media outlet.