Week-ending 23 October 2020
RusNews is an independent You-Tube based media outlet that has made a name for itself covering local and national protests
Committee to Protect Journalists reported on Tuesday, 20 October 2020: Russian authorities should immediately and transparently investigate the kidnapping of journalist Sergey Plotnikov, and ensure that the press in Russia can work safely and freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On October 15, at about 8 p.m., seven unidentified masked men abducted Plotnikov on the street near his home in the eastern city of Khabarovsk, drove him to a forest outside the city, beat him up and threatened to kill him, and then abandoned him, according to news reports and Plotnikov, who spoke with CPJ in a phone interview. Plotnikov works as a reporter for RusNews, an independent YouTube-based outlet that has covered recent local and national protests, and which has about 97,000 followers. Protests have been ongoing in Russia’s far east since July 9, when the region’s former governor, Sergey Furgal, was arrested for his alleged involvement in murders in the early 2000s, which Furgal denied, according to news reports.
