Award-winning Russian journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva, a freelance contributor to RFE/RLs North.Realities project, has left her native country for Latvia amid a pressure campaign by authorities over her activities as a journalist.
Prokopyeva wrote on Facebook late on March 22 that she had left the Russian city of Pskov and is currently in Riga.
"There is no way to shut me up now. And I will return. As soon as it is possible," Prokopyeva wrote, adding that it was a very difficult decision for her to leave Russia.
On March 18, police forced their way into Prokopyeva's home, knocked her on the floor, and handcuffed her as she lay face down on the ground. She was taken to a police station for questioning in a case about allegedly spreading lies about the region's governor.
That same day, police searched the residences of several other journalists and opposition politicians as part of the probe, which stemmed from a lawsuit filed by Pskov Governor Mikhail Vedernikov after an anonymous report on Telegram earlier in March criticized him for lambasting independent media and praising Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. He made the comments as he spoke about several soldiers from Pskov who had died in the war.
Many journalists and activists have left Russia since the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
Russian authorities have ordered local media and bloggers to only publish information provided by official sources about the ongoing war in Ukraine. As part of the guidelines, the conflict cannot be referred to as a war or an invasion, and instead must be called a "special military operation."
In 2020, Prokopyeva won the International Press Freedom award from the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
Just days before she was announced as the winner, a Russian court found her guilty of “justifying terrorism” and ordered her to pay a hefty fine in a controversial case widely criticized as an attack on freedom of speech.
On March 22, RFE/RL President Jamie Fly condemned legal attacks on journalists associated with RFE/RL in Russia, vowing that the “systematic harassment” will not stop the news organization from covering events in the country.
“The Kremlin’s systematic harassment of Yulia Paramonova, Andrei Novashov, and Svetlana Prokopyeva for their work as journalists for RFE/RL is deplorable,” he said in a statement on March 22. “We will not be prevented from providing the Russian people with the truth at a moment they need it more than ever.”
