Status: 07/24/2021 3:09 am
The reporters reported, among other things, on the poison attacks on Kremlin critic Navalny and the former double agent Skripal – Russian authorities have now banned the investigative Internet portal “The Insider”.
In another blow against independent media, the Russian authorities banned the investigative website “The Insider”. The Ministry of Justice in Moscow announced that the medium had been classified as an “undesirable organization”.
The Riga-based editorial team said they would continue to work. “We will continue to inform our readers fully and without censorship about socially important information, in accordance with Latvian law and common sense”.
The website “The Insider”, founded in 2013, works together with the international research platform “Bellingcat”. They reported together on the poison attacks on the Kremlin critic Alexej Navalny and the former double agent Sergej Skripal.
Controversial law against undesirable organizations
Last week the Russian authorities had already banned the investigative website “Proekt”. The editor-in-chief and several employees were declared “foreign agents”. Since 2018, the editorial team had published a series of sensational research, some of which also dealt with the wealth of members of the Russian elite.
A controversial law allows the Russian authorities to classify foreign organizations as “undesirable” and prohibit their activities in Russia. Russians who work for “undesirable” organizations face fines or imprisonment.
Several media have already been banned
Since Navalny’s return to Russia in January, the authorities have increased the pressure on independent media. Navalny survived an attack in Russia last August with a neurotoxin from the Novichok group, for which he blames the Kremlin. After his treatment in Germany, he was arrested on his return to Russia and later sentenced to more than two and a half years in a camp for alleged violations of probation conditions.
In the past few months, the Russian authorities had already classified the news portals “Medusa” and “Wtimes” as “foreign agents”. “Wtimes” then ceased operations. Organizations and individuals classified as “foreign agent” are required to disclose their funding, among other things.