On 12 February 2025, Russian independent media reported that Russia’s Investigative Committee had opened a criminal case against Spanish journalist Alberto Rojas on charges of illegally crossing the Russian border.
The charges were formulated following a reporting trip by Rojas to Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk region, which Ukrainian forces are in control of since August 2024. Rojas later published a report from this trip for Spanish daily El Mundo.
Similar criminal cases were earlier opened against other foreign reporters who traveled to Sudzha for reporting work. If found guilty, Rojas would face a sentence of up to five years in prison in absentia according to Russia’s criminal code.
The decision came amidst a Ukrainian military offensive in Russia’s Kursk region, in the course of which Ukraine captured several settlements near its border. Ukrainian and international journalists later arrived to the area to report on the situation.
Throughout August, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) initiated identical proceedings against at least seven other foreign journalists who reported from Sudzha, according to IPI monitoring.