Updates with Timchenko commentsRussias General Prosecutors Office has included the independent news outlet Meduza to the nations list of unwanted organizations, a sanction designed to force entities to dissolve and which puts its staff and monetary donors at risk of significant prison time.The General Prosecutors Office said on Thursday that it thought the activities of Meduza constitute a danger to the foundation of the constitutional order and security of the Russian Federation.
Among the most popular independent Russian-language news sites, Meduza was founded in the Latvian capital Riga in 2014 by a cumulative of previous workers at the popular Russian news website Lenta.ru.
The reporters who established Meduza had actually all just resigned en masse following a choice by Lenta.rus Kremlin-linked billionaire owner Alexander Mamut to fire editor-in-chief Galina Timchenko.Timchenko, who stays Meduzas CEO almost a years later, told The Moscow Times on Thursday that the choice was not totally unforeseen.
Since the start of the war [in Ukraine] we understood it was simply a matter of time.
So we were ready and it has not frightened us.
Our primary concern is our readers.
Individuals can still read Meduza, well attempt to describe this to our audience, but releasing links and remarks might be considered administrative offenses and this can impact our readers who stay in Russia, Timchenko said, including: We will not quit.
Meduzas legal status in Russia was currently made complex after the Russian Justice Ministry labeled it a foreign representative in April 2021.
In July, Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner mercenary group, requested that Meduza be identified an unwanted organization right away after it published an investigation into the activities of his mercenary group, which Prigozhin referred to as provocation disguised as pacifism.
The unfavorable organization label requires an organization to cease all operations in Russia and enables its funds and properties in the country to be confiscated.Russians are restricted from participating in the work of unfavorable organizations, even outside Russia.
The charge for infraction is up to 4 years jail time.
Financial contributions to such organizations also bring a charge of up to 5 years in prison.In addition, distributing or referring to products released by an unfavorable company is a crime and can lead to legal consequences, including the blocking of any media outlet citing an undesirable organization in Russia.
The Russian security services are trying to make it tough for the publication to interact with their sources.
They are attempting to daunt them in this method, political specialist and former Putin speech author Abbas Gallyamov informed The Moscow Times on Thursday, including that there were a lot of leaks through Meduza that were unfavorable to Russian hawks.