The homes of at least five journalists in cities across Russia were searched by police over their alleged connection to Ilya Ponomarev, a former Duma member charged with spreading false information about the army. Ponomarev was previously charged in August under a Russian law that bans spreading “fakes” about the military. They were Bella Nasibyan, a reporter with independent news website RusNews, Vladislav Postnikov, editor-in-chief of the independent Vecherniye Vedomosti newspaper, Ruslan Sukhushin, a photographer, Yulia Glazova, a reporter with news website 86.ru and Viktor Zyryanov, a founder of local independent news website Orlets.
Police also conducted searches in the homes of four journalists and of the editor-in-chief of online news portal Odintsovo-INFO, as part of the same investigation linked to Ilya Ponomarev.