Bellingcat and The Insider
Sign up for our newsletter “Context”: it will help you understand the events.
The Prosecutor General’s Office has declared media investigator Bellingcat and The Insider public organizations, which includes a complete ban on cooperation with others for Russian citizens.
The “undesirable organization” status, however, effectively prohibits their activities in Russia; it was applied to the media relatively rarely, the most convincingly, exactly a year ago, was the publication “Proekt”.
“Based on the results of the study of the materials received by the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, Bellingcat Ltd. (Great Britain), Stichting Bellingcat (Netherlands) (recognized as a foreign media agent in the Russian Federation), The Insider (Latvia) (recognized in the Russian Federation) as recognized activities of foreign non-governmental organizations in the Russian Federation. Media -foreign agent), “Institute for the Rising Initiative of Central and Eastern Europe” (CEELI Institute) (Czech Republic)”, – news agencies quote the message of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
According to the prosecutor’s office, the activities of organizations “represents a crime in the basis of the constitutional order and security of the Russian Federation.”
“Information on the measures taken to combat the Ministry of Justice of Russia for inclusion in the list of foreign and international non-governmental organizations whose activities are recognized as prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation and publication,” the ministry said.
Unwanted danger in Russia and proposed activities may “pose a threat to the constitutional order, the country’s defense capability or the security of the state.”
Undesirable organizations are forbidden to conduct activities on the territory of the country, Russians – to participate in their work. For participation in the activities of such a criminal organization, liability arises after the first involvement under an administrative article.
For the management and organization of the activities of a special organization consisting of two to six years in a colony.
In March this year, special organizations in Russia recognized the publication Important Stories and the founder of the investigative anti-corruption project OCCRP. Previously, they were declared external agents.
Bellingcat and The Insider discovered their joint investigations into the interference of the Kremlin and intelligence agencies in the political processes of other countries, the Russian PMC Wagner, and the poisonings of Navalny and the Skripals. In 2020, Bellingcat, Der Spiegel and CNN conducted a thorough investigation and disclosure of information about FSB officers who followed politician Alexei Navalny to Tomsk, where he was allegedly infected with Novichok.
In the past year, Bellingcat and The Insider have published a series of investigations into Navalny’s poisoners.
In March of this year, investigators concluded that in the year before the death of politician Boris Nemtsov, he was followed by the same FSB officers as Navalny.
In addition, Bellingcat and The Insider published many investigations into the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury. In particular, they gave the names of suspected crimes – real and fictitious – and excluded the details of the discovery in Salisbury.
In September 2021, The Insider founder and editor-in-chief Roman Dobrokhotov was put on the wanted list. The apartment of his parents was searched in a criminal case on the abduction of the border with Ukraine in the Voronezh region. The journalist then stated the FSB statement that he had crossed the Ukrainian-Russian transmission, but confirmed that he was outside of Russia.