Police officers in Korolev, near Moscow, came with a search to the RusNews journalist and the author of the Honest Korolevskoye Telegram channel Roman Ivanov, his colleagues report . All equipment was confiscated from the apartment, after which the journalist was taken for interrogation to the department of the Investigative Committee for the Moscow Region, located in Mytishchi.
According to wife Maria Ivanova, the police began to break down the door to the apartment without warning and used communication jammers, so the couple could not contact the lawyers. At the same time, they wrote in the protocol that the Ivanovs resisted the search and “almost built barricades.” Breaking down the door, the police also damaged the wall in the entrance.
The investigator said that three criminal cases had been opened against Ivanov because of his Telegram posts and that he faced five to ten years in prison. Maria Ivanova was also taken to the UK in Mytishchi, but they are not allowed inside the building.
In September 2022, Roman Ivanov was arrested for covering an anti-mobilization rally and fined for violating the rules for holding a mass rally. Later, the Moscow Regional Court canceled the fine.
In February, a court in Barnaul sentenced RusNews journalist Maria Ponomarenko to six years in prison. She was found guilty of spreading "fake news" about the Russian army because of a post about the destruction of a theater in Mariupol.
