Russian police detain journalist who filmed last video of Alexei Navalny alive
A journalist who filmed the last video of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny before he died, Antonina Favorskaya, has been detained by authorities.
Favorskaya covered the trials of Navalny for several years and media freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders said on Thursday she was one of six journalists across the country held this month.
Russian authorities detained Favorskaya late on Wednesday and accused her of taking part in an “extremist organisation” by posting on the social media platforms of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, the Russian human rights group OVD-Info said.
Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh, said that Favorskaya didn’t publish anything on the foundation’s platforms and suggested that Russian authorities targeted her because she was doing her job as a journalist.
Navalny died in an Arctic penal colony in February.
OVD-Info said that Favorskaya was initially detained on 17 March after laying flowers on Navalny’s grave.
She spent 10 days in jail after being accused of disobedience towards the police, but when that period of detention ended, authorities charged her again and ordered her to appear on Friday in Moscow’s Basmanny District Court, OVD-Info said.
She is one of several Russian journalists targeted by authorities as part of a sweeping crackdown against dissent in Russia.
Two other journalists, Alexandra Astakhova and Anastasia Musatova, were also temporarily detained after they came to meet Favorskaya in the detention centre where she was being held, Reporters Without Borders said.
Ekaterina Anikievich, of the Russian news site SOTAvision, and Konstantin Yarov from RusNews, were also detained by police while covering the search of Favorskaya’s home.
Yarov told RusNews that he was beaten while in custody: “They kicked me, put a foot on my head, twisted my fingers, mocked me when I tried to get up, demanded to show my rucksack as if it might contain explosives.”
In Ufa, 1,300km (800 miles) east of Moscow, Russian authorities detained Olga Komleva, a reporter for RusNews, on Wednesday.
They also accused her of extremism and involvement with Navalny and his organisation, according to Reporters Without Borders.
Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation has been designated an extremist organisation by Russian authorities, which means that people associated with it can face prison sentences.