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Journalist Favorskaya in court
Photo: Dmitry Serebryakov / AP
In February, Antonina Favorskaya recorded the last known video of Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny. Now the Russian journalist and photographer has been arrested in Moscow. The young woman is being investigated for alleged involvement in an extremist organization. Favorskaya is said to have published articles on the website of Navalny's anti-corruption foundation. This was classified as extremist in Russia.
Favorskaya works for the independent media Sotavision, which reports on political criminal trials in Russia. The journalist has also been intensively involved in the trials against the opposition activist Alexei Navalny for two years. The day before his still-unexplained death in February, Favorskaya filmed Navalny's final appearance as a witness in a court case. The Kremlin critic was brought into the trial from his penal colony in the Arctic Circle.
The journalist Favorskaya was arrested on the day of Navalny's funeral in Moscow and sentenced to ten days of arrest for alleged disobedience to the police. When Favorskaya was released from arrest on the evening of March 27, the police were waiting for her. Two journalist friends who wanted to pick up Favorskaya were also arrested.
Meanwhile, Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysch made it clear that Favorskaya had never published on the website of Navalny's anti-corruption foundation. “A journalist is accused of doing journalistic work,” Jarmysch wrote in a post on the X platform.
boy/dpa