On 30 September 2022, police in Makhachkala, the capital of Russia’s Dagestan region, arrested journalist Vladimir Sevrinovsky, who was reporting on local protests against mobilization. Sevrinovsky was found guilty of “hooliganism” and sentenced by a local court to five days of administrative arrest. The court hearing in his case took place without the journalist’s lawyer, whom he managed to call following his arrest.
Vladimir Sevrinovsky was in Makhachkala to report for Meduza, Russia’s most popular online independent news portal. The journalist also writes for other media, including Kavkaz.Realii, a project focused on Russia’s Caucasus region and created by RFE/RL, a media corporation funded by the US Congress.