Russia drops journalist’s drug charges

MOSCOW — In a stunning turnaround, Russian authorities on Tuesday abruptly dropped all charges against a prominent investigative reporter and promised to go after the police who allegedly tried to frame him as a drug dealer.

The release of Ivan Golunov marks an extremely rare case of security officials admitting a mistake. It also highlighted the difficulties that Russian journalists routinely face when reporting on sensitive topics like graft, corruption and President Vladimir Putin’s personal life.

Golunov was stopped Thursday by police on a Moscow street and arrested. His defense team said he was beaten and denied a lawyer for more than 12 hours. The journalist, who works for the independent website Meduza, had been facing drug charges that could put him in prison for up to 20 years.

Supporters mounted a nationwide campaign on his behalf, with journalists and others picketing Moscow police headquarters for five days. More than 20,000 people signed an online pledge to march in the capital on Wednesday, a public holiday, to protest Golunov’s arrest.

But Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev announced that all charges against Golunov had been dropped after police found “no proof of his part in a crime.”

Golunov said he still couldn’t believe he had been cleared so quickly.

“I will keep doing investigations to justify the trust of all those who supported me,” he said.

It is not yet clear whether the police reversal represented a turning point for the many Russian journalists who are routinely attacked or face government pressure for their work.

“We have put the pressure on the system and it worked this time,” said Pavel Kanygin, investigative reporter at Novaya Gazeta. “But it really is impossible to work in this environment.”