Moscow bans group investigating Russian military activities
On Thursday, Russian authorities said “undesirable”the investigative group Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), renowned for its investigations into Russian military activities around the world, leading to its de facto ban.
The Russian General Prosecutor’s Office said it made this decision considering that the CIT was involved in “anti-Russian propaganda campaigns launched from abroad and aimed at promoting protests and destructive ideas”. “The main objective of this group of pseudo-journalists is to collect and publish information on the Russian armed forces, in particular the personal information of Russian servicemen then used to discredit them”adds the floor.
The CIT, founded in Russia, emerged in 2014 by publishing investigations into Russian forces involved in the conflict in Ukraine. For his investigations, he identifies and verifies information and images published in free access on the Internet. He also covered the activities of Russian forces in Libya, Syria, the Central African Republic, in addition to Ukraine.
In Russia, employees of an organization “undesirable” face serious legal action. The creator of the CIT, Rouslan Leviev, who lives in the United States, is prosecuted in Russia for disseminating ” fake news “ on the Russian army. He claimed on Thursday that all of his employees were out of the country and were therefore “more or less safe”.
But he underlined, during a program broadcast on the YouTube channel of journalist Alexander Pliouchtchev, that this ban caused “serious risks” CIT volunteers who are still on Russian territory. ” A part [de nos bénévoles] are in Russia, but they are anonymous, we do not have a database that it would be possible to hack to leak their names, we try to take all measures for their safety”he assured.