On 29 December 2022, police in Russia’s Tyumen region conducted searches at the addresses of Artur Galeev and Nikita Kiforuk, two local journalists working respectively for news portals 72.ru and 86.ru. Kiforuk was also briefly detained and then released. The searches were allegedly linked to an investigation into fake news allegedly distributed by Ilya Ponomarev, a former member of the Russian parliament, and regarded actions committed by the Russian army in Ukraine.
Ilya Ponomarev, who permanently left Russia in 2015, is known for having been the only representative who voted against Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Police claimed Galeev and Kiforuk had links with Ponomarev, which they denied.