Russia opens criminal case against journalist critical of Ukraine war
Russia's Investigative Committee said on Tuesday that it had launched criminal proceedings against a prominent journalist who heads a publication in neighbouring Latvia providing critical coverage of the three-year-old conflict in Ukraine.
The Moscow branch of the committee, which deals with major criminal cases in Russia, said it had opened the case against Russian-born Galina Timchenko, co-founder and head of the Meduza publication.
It said the case was based on organising the activities of an 'undesirable organisation' and posting videos 'to foment protest sentiment and to involve the public in the activities' of such an organisation.
Institutions deemed 'undesirable' on grounds that they threaten Russia's constitutional order, can be subject to fines or orders to dissolve.
Meduza, which reports in detail on Moscow's full-scale invasion of its neighbour, said in an announcement posted online that Timchenko faced six years in prison if convicted.
Timchenko, who had previously headed up prominent publications inside Russia, was last year declared a 'foreign agent', a designation which carries negative Soviet-era connotations and imposes difficult bureaucratic requirements.
Hundreds of Russian nationals have had the designation imposed on them.
Since Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, parliament has approved legislation cracking down on dissent in the country, including fines and prison terms for discrediting or spreading false information on the army.
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Drones in low-level airspace are now a universal vulnerability and a defining challenge. It is difficult to keep out drones with unpredictable flight paths. The operation showed how little the margin for error is when cheap systems can be used precisely. As demonstrated, the cost of failure can be strategic. Though the consequences of the attacks on Russian military capabilities are difficult to estimate at this stage, their symbolic significance is important for Ukraine, as it has been facing setbacks on the battlefront. Ukraine, which has banked on expanding the use of domestically produced drones during the ongoing conflict, has now surprised Russia and the world with this new approach. However, the attacks are unlikely to alter the political calculus of President Putin or change Russia's belief that it holds an advantage over Ukraine, and that it sees a weakening resolve in some of Ukraine's allies. There is no doubt that this attack will go down as one of the finest out-of-the-box ideas of this conflict rendering the entire air defence system sterile and raising huge questions regarding the management of airspace with repercussions far beyond the conflict.
