Russian journalist who covered Navalny trials jailed on extremism charges

A Moscow court has ordered a Russian journalist who covered the trials of the late Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and other dissidents to remain in custody pending an investigation and trial on charges of extremism.

Antonina Favorskaya, also identified by court officials as Antonina Kravtsova, was arrested earlier this month. On Friday, Moscow’s Basmanny district court ordered that she remain in pre-trial detention at least until May 28th.

The hearing was conducted behind closed doors at the request of the investigators, which was supported by the presiding judge. Favorskaya and her lawyer protested against the decision, the independent Russian news site Mediazona reported.

“I am completely against a closed process. The press needs to know what’s going on here, what I’m being accused of,” the outlet quoted Favorskaya as saying.

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She is accused of collecting material, producing and editing videos and publications for Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption, which had been outlawed as extremist by Russian authorities, according to court officials. She has been charged with involvement with an extremist group, a criminal offence punishable by up to six years in prison.

Favorskaya was detained on March 17th after laying flowers on Navalny’s grave. She spent 10 days in jail after being accused of disobedience toward the police, but when that period of detention ended, authorities charged her again and ordered her to appear in court on Friday, according to OVD-Info, a Russian human rights group.

Kira Yarmysh, the spokesperson for Navalny, said that Favorskaya did not publish anything on the foundation’s platforms and suggested that Russian authorities had targeted her because she was doing her job as a journalist.

Yarmysh wrote on X: “Even if we discard the falsity of the accusation, its essence remains – the journalist is accused of journalistic activity.”

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Navalny died in an Arctic penal colony in February. Favorskaya covered Navalny’s court hearings for years, as well as trials of other Kremlin critics caught up in a relentless government clampdown.

She was one of six journalists detained across Russia in March, the media freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders said on Thursday.

Favorskaya and several Russian journalists have been targeted by authorities as part of the crackdown on dissent in Russia aimed at opposition figures, journalists, activists and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Her jailing came on the first anniversary of the arrest of Evan Gershkovich, a 32-year-old reporter for the Wall Street Journal who is awaiting trial in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo Prison on espionage charges, which he and his employer have vehemently denied.

The US government has declared Gershkovich wrongfully detained, and officials have accused Moscow of using the journalist as a pawn for political ends.

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