Alexandra Bayazitova, a journalist and founder of the Hellish Grandmothers economic Telegram channel , detained in Moscow, faces up to 15 years in prison in a case of extortion (Article 163 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). This was reported to RIA Novosti in court.
In what particular case Bayazitova is being held, RIA Novosti does not specify in the article, but Baza has already reported on the arrests of the administrators of Telegram channels, which allegedly belonged to the same network. They are accused of extorting money from Rostec in exchange for not publishing unfavorable data for the state corporation.
A law enforcement source told the agency that Bayazitova is a defendant in a criminal case of extortion, and “investigative actions” were carried out with the journalist the day before. According to the source, the issue of Bayazitova's arrest will be resolved on Wednesday.
In her videos on the YouTube channel, Bayazitova criticized the economic situation in the country, talked about the collapse of the ruble and the “scams” of the Central Bank and Sberbank. Recent videos with titles “For whom Sechin brought down the ruble”, “The ruble was quarantined | And Putin – to the Constitution”, “Sberbank: a scam instead of an offer. The Central Bank figured out how not to pay small shareholders” were published about two years ago.
Bayazitova also hosted a Telegram channel, where the latest entries are dated August 7. One of the publications is also critical of the Central Bank:
“The Central Bank no longer lies and will not pretend. Do you remember how the head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, told us that there were no plans to ban dollars and euros? So they were, are and will be introduced further – in addition to putting pressure on banks in order to introduce illegal (gee-gee) foreign exchange commissions for citizens, the Central Bank will put even more pressure on them in order to rid the economy of "toxic currencies".
Bayazitova graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of Lomonosov Moscow State University, this is her second higher education. She worked as an economic correspondent for Kommersant, Izvestia, and conducted training seminars at the Academy of Chief Accountants. In 2007-2011, Bayazitova was a member of the expert council of the State Duma Committee on Budget and Taxes.
Earlier, the Basmanny Court of Moscow arrested three administrators of the Scanner Telegram channel Evgeny Moskvin, V. Malushenko and Alexei Slobodenyuk – all three are suspected of large-scale fraud (part 3 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Baza claims that several other political and economic channels (including Infernal Grandmas) were allegedly part of the same network, their administrators are accused of extorting money from Rostec in exchange for not publishing unfavorable data for the state corporation. Among these channels, in addition to Bayazitova's Infernal Grandmas, are Financial Guard, E-Magic, Riddle and Mamkin Financier. The authors of the latter told Baza that they were not affiliated with any network.