On 28 December 2024, police in the Russian city of Ivanovo drew up a fining protocol targeting Sergey Kustov, the editor-in-chief of Ivanovonews, a local online outlet supportive of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In the fining protocol, a copy of which Kustov published on his Telegram channel, the journalist is accused of “discrediting” the Russian army. He faces a fine of up to 50 thousand rubles.
According to the journalist, he is being targeted for a news item published in November 2024, in which Ivanovonews reported on a video appeal to Vladimir Putin made by relatives of Russian soldiers from a unit based in Ivanovo. In the appeal, the relatives demanded information on the soldiers, whom the Russian army had earlier officially designated as missing in action.
According to Kustov, authorities based the case against him on a minor spelling mistake in the name of one of the missing soldiers: Ivanovonews would have “discredited” the Russian army by reporting that a soldier with a given name had gone missing, while officially no army personnel with a name written in the spelling used by Ivanovonews was on the list of the Russian army.
Russian independent outlet MediaZona reported that the news item in question had since been deleted from the Ivanovonews website and from all the outlet’s social media accounts, except Facebook.
According to Kustov, he is being targeted by authorities for an incident in March 2024, when he went to report from the crash of a Russian military plane near Ivanovo. On site, military police reportedly beat the journalist (see separate alert), following which Kustov was jailed for 10 days on charges of disobeying officials.
Russian independent media reported that Ivanovonews regularly produces publications supportive of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and conducts fundraising campaigns in support of Russian soldiers.
UPDATE: On 12 February 2025, Russian independent media reported that a court in Ivanovo fined Kustov 100 thousand rubles on charges of “discrediting” the Russian army.