On 2 November 2022, authorities in Kazakhstan detained Russian journalist Yevgeniya Baltatarova, after Russia put her on a ‘wanted list’ for allegedly publishing “fake news” about the Russian Armed Forces.
Baltatarova was detained in Almaty airport as she was about to board a flight to Bishkek. On her Telegram channel, she said authorities confiscated her passport and informed her she was forbidden from leaving Kazakhstan. The following day, Baltatarova was released from custody, with police allegedly destroying a document she signed which confirmed she had been detained.
According to the journalist, an investigation was opened against her in Russia for at least two social media publications. In one of these, she retweeted a Russian opposition politician, who wrote that the Russian army bombed a theatre in Mariupol where civilians and children were reportedly hiding. In another publication, Baltatarova wrote on the mass killings of civilians by Russian forces in Bucha near Kyiv. The Russian Investigative Committee qualified these posts as fake news aimed at “discrediting” the Russian army.