Russian courts last month issued arrest warrants for three journalists who are in exile, in a move that analysts say is designed to harass critics outside the country’s borders.
A Moscow court on June 17 ordered the arrests of Ekaterina Fomina and Roman Anin on charges of spreading what the Kremlin views as false information about the Russian military.
In a separate case on June 27, a court issued an arrest warrant for Farida Kurbangaleyeva on charges of justifying terrorism and spreading what Moscow views as false information about the Russian military.
Kurbangaleyeva has reported for Russian and international channels and runs a YouTube channel where she interviews Ukrainian and Russian politicians, according to reports.
The case involving Fomina stems from a 2022 documentary she worked on at the investigative outlet IStories, which Anin founded. In the documentary, a Russian soldier confessed to killing a Ukrainian civilian.
“If you’re openly speaking against the current Russian regime, you can’t be safe anywhere,” Fomina told VOA. “We can’t say that we can continue our normal life.”
Since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has stepped up repressive tactics against journalists inside and outside the country, say watchdogs. And while arrests in absentia are less severe than other forms of harassment that Moscow is accused of carrying out, like poisoning and surveillance, experts say they’re still a cog in the transnational repression machine.
Such warrants serve to both intimidate exiled journalists and signal to Russia’s domestic audience that criticism is not tolerated, according to Grady Vaughan of Freedom House in Washington.
“It does send the message that just because this person left Russia doesn’t mean we forgot about them,” Vaughn told VOA.
Russia is among at least 26 governments that have targeted journalists and critics overseas over the past decade, according to a 2023 report by Freedom House.
Karol Luczka, who covers Eastern Europe at the International Press Institute, believes the practice may be part of an effort “to satisfy on-paper internal management demands for a certain amount of repressed journalists, activists and other dissenting figures within a given time frame.”
Luczka mentioned that on Friday evenings, for example, Russia’s Ministry of Justice typically adds four or five names — often including a journalist — to the country’s list of so-called “foreign agents.”
Arrest warrants can also “contribute to discrediting journalists among [Russia’s] own population,” said Luczka, who is based in Vienna.
Russia’s Washington embassy did not immediately reply to VOA’s email requesting comment.
Earlier this year, Fomina spoke with VOA about the psychological toll of starting over in new cities and the legal threats that she has faced for more than six months.
The Russian journalist has lived in Europe since 2022 but she won’t publicly say where she’s based out of fear that Russian authorities may surveil her.
One of the hardest realizations for Fomina is that the arrest warrant will pose limitations on where she can safely travel — and report from — over concerns that certain governments could extradite her to Russia.
“I used to be an independent journalist, very flexible, very mobile, ready to fly in one hour if something happened,” she said. “Now, I’m really limited, and I can’t go to many countries.”
Fomina, who now works at the exiled Russian outlet TV Rain, said she’s concerned that the action might make it harder for her to find sources in Russia who are willing to speak with her.
She expects that a court will eventually try and convict her in absentia. Despite that, she remains undeterred.
“I truly believe that we can’t be silent,” she said. “I’m standing on my values.”
