On 26 April 2024, Russian independent media reported that Forbes Russia journalist Sergey Mingazov had been detained on accusations of disseminating what Russian authorities consider to be “fake news” about the war in Ukraine. According to Mingazov’s lawyer Konstantin Bubon, the journalist was accused of sharing a post on Telegram about the mass killings of civilians by the Russian army in Bucha in March 2022.
The Russian service of the BBC specified that Mingazov had reposted a series of publications on Bucha, which received 110-130 views each (according to the outlet, Mingazov’s Telegram channel had just over 400 subscribers in total). Mingazov’s lawyer said that the journalist’s home in Khabarovsk had been searched, with security forces confiscating electronic devices present on site, including phones and computers belonging to the journalist’s wife and children.
Pro-government news agency RIA Novosti later reported that Mingazov had been placed under house arrest pending trial. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison under sub-section “D”, paragraph 2 of article 207.3 of Russia’s criminal code.
According to Russian media, Mingazov had most recently worked as a news editor for Forbes Russia. Prior to this he published for Vedomosti and Kommersant, two Russian newspapers which maintained independent editorial policies in the past. He also worked as a correspondent in Khabarovsk for the state-controlled TASS news agency.
UPDATE: On 7 February 2025, Russian independent media reported that the prosecutor in Mingazov’s case had requested a 6-year prison sentence for the journalist.
UPDATE: On 26 February 2025, a court in Khabarovsk fined Mingazov 700 thousand rubles and did not sentence the journalist to prison on grounds of disseminating “fake news”. He was released from prison soon after.