On 22 November 2022, a court in Kazan, the capital of Russia’s Tatarstan region, arrested local journalist Andrey Grigoriev in absentia. Grigoriev, who works for Idel.Realii, a project focused on Russia’s Volga region created by RFE/RL, a media corporation financed by the US Congress, is to be arrested for two months from the moment he enters Russia or from the moment of his extradition. The journalist left the country following the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the introduction of sweeping restrictions on war-related publications.
According to the court, Grigoriev contributed to the publication of a video portraying an “attack” on the Russian ambassador in Poland, who had red paint poured on him by pro-Ukrainian activists in Warsaw several months earlier. The court considered that through this action Grigoriev violated article 205.2.2 of the Russian penal code, which forbids “public calls on executing terrorist activities, public justification of terrorism or propaganda of terrorism, committed through media or with the use of electronic systems, such as the internet”. If found guilty, the Andrey Grigoriev faces up to seven years in prison.
UPDATE: On 20 October 2023, Grigoriev was added to Russia’s national list of “terrorists and extremists”: the decisions means all assets owned by the journalist in Russia are frozen and he is forbidden from entering any financial transactions in the country.