Russia journalist arrested for donation to Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation News
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Russia journalist arrested for donation to Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation

Russian police Monday charged independent Russian journalist Andrey Zayakin with financing extremist activity for a small dollar donation Zayakin made to Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), a foundation started by Russian dissident and critic Alexei Navalny. Zayakin faces up to eight years prison for donating 1,000 rubles ($16) to FBK.

Zayakin is a reporter for Novaya Gazeta, an independent Russian newspaper, and co-founder of Dissernet, a community of Russian and foreign individuals who publicly review PhD theses defended at Russian universities. In 2019 and 2020, Dissernet detected and reported irregularities in a number of Russian theses they examined.

Zayakin was arrested in Moscow on August 28 on charges of financing extremist activity. A Russian court declared FBK was an extremist organization, as defined under Russian law by Article 282.1, in June 2021. Zayakin was charged under Article 282.3, which prohibits knowingly providing funds meant to organize, prepare or commit “at least one of the crimes of an extremist…organization.” Penalties for violating the law include a 300,000 to 700,000 ruble fine, one to four years compulsory labor, deprivation of rights to hold certain positions for up to three years and three to eight years imprisonment.

Zayakin appeared in a Moscow court Monday. According to Novaya Gazeta, Russian prosecutors asked the judge to place restrictions upon Zayakin’s movement and communication with others while they continue to build their case. Zayakin is now barred from leaving his house “between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., communicating with witnesses in his case, sending and receiving correspondence, and using the phone and the Internet.”