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Is this a consequence of the Golounov affair? Less than a week after the surprise release of the investigative journalist, another journalist was released in Russia. Igor Rudnikov, founder and editor of the newspaper Novye Koliossa in Kaliningrad, had been in prison since 2017. He was facing 10 years in prison, but the Russian court decided against all odds to release him.
With our correspondent in Moscow , Daniel Vallot
This is a decision he absolutely did not expect, and at the end of the court Igor Rodnikov does not hide his amazement:. " I knew justice would triumph, but I never imagined it would happen so quickly, " he told reporters . .
The ordeal of Igor Rodnikov will have lasted more than a year and a half. In November 2017, he was arrested, and accused of extortion, by a spawn of the local police. A few months earlier, the journalist had published a particularly embarrassing investigation about the official. To get rid of him, he claims to have been the victim of an extortion attempt, one of the most common methods in Russia, to get rid of a journalist.
In its decision, the court in charge of the case does not exculpate Igor Rodnikov, but simply requalify the crime, to then release the journalist. For the prosecution and investigators, who claimed ten years in prison, the judgment is still a snub. It is very rare in Russia that a court does not follow the prosecution's recommendations. It's hard not to make the connection between this unexpected decision and the release of Ivan Golunov last week.
For Reporters Without Borders, it is the " encouraging " sign that it is becoming more difficult in Russia to keep journalists behind bars with impunity.
#Russia: Igor Rudnikov is finally free! The mobilization must continue for the six other journalists who remain imprisoned. https://t.co/WkE50h9ktm
RSF (@RSF_inter) June 17, 2019