Bombay Durpun - Russian police raid independent Novaya Gazeta outlet, reporter detained

Novaya Gazeta was for years Russia's leading investigative independent outlet and was targeted heavily for its critical reporting and investigations into human rights abuses.

"The searches at the offices of Novaya Gazeta have been ongoing for 11 hours," the outlet said on social media.

Earlier it said that the reasons for the raids were unknown and the outlet's lawyers had not been allowed into the office.

Russian state news agencies reported, citing anonymous law enforcement sources, that the raid was related to one of the paper's top journalists Oleg Roldugin.

Novaya Gazeta said that "Oleg Roldugin, a columnist for Novaya Gazeta, has been detained for 48 hours," suspected in an illegal use and transfer of personal data.

Roldugin reported on corruption in Russia's top brass, including former President Dmitry Medvedev and the influential head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov.

An AFP reporter in Moscow saw two vans of Russia's Investigative Committee parked in a yard outside the offices and staff stood inside the entrance foyer.

The paper's then editor-in-chief, Dmitry Muratov, jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for his "efforts to safeguard freedom of expression" at the helm of the paper.

Several Novaya Gazeta reporters have been murdered in killings widely seen as retribution for their work.

They include Anna Politkovskaya, who spent years investigating allegations of abuses by Russia's military during its campaigns in Chechnya.

The paper, which used to be published several times a week, cut down production inside the country after Russia introduced military censorship at the start of its offensive on Ukraine in 2022.

F.Varghese--BD