News of the Day: 28 July 2021

RFE/RL: Police have raided the Moscow apartment of Roman Dobrokhotov, editor in chief of The Insider investigative website, just days after it was added to Russia’s controversial registry of “foreign agents.” Dobrokhotov tweeted that police came to his apartment early in the morning on July 28.

Amnesty International: Following the raid on the Moscow apartment of journalist and editor, Roman Dobrokhotov, as well as the home of his parents, Marie Struthers, Amnesty International Eastern Europe and Central Asia Regional Director, said: “This morning’s police raids are a blatant attempt to intimidate a journalist who has made clear his intention not to be silenced by the designation last week of his publication as a ‘foreign agent’.

The Moscow Times: Russian authorities have blocked jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s mirror website using the tools that help telecom providers “isolate” Russia’s section of the internet, the privacy NGO Roskomsvoboda said Tuesday.

The Moscow Times: The Russian internet watchdog said Wednesday social media accounts linked to jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny should be blocked, as Moscow turns up the heat on the opposition ahead of parliamentary polls.

The Guardian: Roman Abramovich’s lawyer said it was defamatory to describe the businessman as having “a corrupt relationship” with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and that he had acted “covertly at his direction” in key business deals such as the purchase of Chelsea football club. Speaking on the first morning of a preliminary hearing of a high court libel claim against a bestselling book about the modern Kremlin, Hugh Tomlinson QC said the 54-year-old billionaire did not “bring this claim lightly” and understood it could be characterised as “an attack on public interest journalism”.

RFE/RL: Earlier this month, the Federal Security Service (FSB) published a draft instruction listing military and technical topics that Russian citizens could be deemed “foreign agents” for discussing, making them subject to restrictions and possible administrative or criminal punishment.

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