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swelling demonstrations outside the court house where he was being held. The three main Russian papers all came out with identical front pages shortly after saying “I/We are Ivan Golunov.”
In the face of the growing protest the authorities eventually backed off and the charges were dropped. Since that incident the “I/We” logo (the two Russian words are interwoven into a graphic element) has become a standard for protests. The demonstrators in Belarus in recent weeks are wearing “I/We are the 97%” T shirts, a reference to Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko's low opinion poll ratings.
All of Russia’s leading media, including Vedomosti and Kommersant, both of which Safronov worked for, issued statements in support of the journalist and condemned the arrest as an attack on the free press and media freedoms.
Safronov's arrest comes on the heels of another high-profile case this week where RFE/RL journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva was on trial on charges of “justifying terrorism” following a column she wrote about a bomb attack on the FSB. She faced up to six years in jail, but in the face of the growing popular protest at her arrest the court convicted her as charged but
only ordered her to pay a RUB500,000 fine ($7,000).
And another high-profile journalist, Ilya Azar from Russia’s leading investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was released after 15 days in jail. Azar had been staging a one-man demonstration, which is legal in Russia, outside the
FSB headquarters to protest against the arrest of ex-policeman and anti- corruption activist Vladimir Vorontsov, when he himself was arrested.
These one-man demos are becoming
a fixture of the Russian political scene amongst the press and a regular feature that accompanies any arrest of harassment of working journalists or activists.
While television remains entirely under the Kremlin’s control and the internet
is largely unregulated and full of opposition news sites and social groups, Russia’s newspapers are in a grey zone between these poles.
On the whole the newspapers are free to write what they like and are often outspokenly critical of the government. However, Russian journalists have told bne IntelliNews that in some cases they
“get the call” from the Kremlin and are told to back off or tone it down. If they ignore the warnings then protestors can appear outside their offices or libel cases are brought against the paper. Self- cenosorship is also common amongst Russian journalist as they try and sail the hazy line between reporting the news and avoiding retribution by the authorities. Safronov's arrest is widely seen as an attempt by the FSB to move that line towards less press freedoms and tigher censorship – both self- and explicit.
The Kremlin has been tightening its grip over the press fro several years now.
In 2014 it introduced a new media law banning foreigners from owning more than 20% of a publication. In 2018 the editor of RBK was forced out. And most recently an investigation into the ownership of Vedomosti, carried out by the paper’s own staff in co-operation with the other major papers, found it is now owned by Rosneft, Russia’s biggest oil company, which is run by Russian President Vladimir Putin long- standing confidant, Igor Sechin.
At the same time the number of court convictions on charges of treason and esiponage have risen dramatically in recent years.
Evidence of massive ballot stuffing emerges in
Russia's referendum on constitutional changes
Ben Aris in Berlin
Evidence of massive ballot stuffing emerged in a mathematician Facebook post of a statistical study of the voting results in the referendum on constitutional changes that would allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to remain in office until 2036.
As bne IntelliNews reported before the vote began that Russian statistician Sergey Shpilkin has made a name for himself by highlighting vote rigging in past elections in Russia by studying the mathematical distribution patterns. Shpilkin found
serious discrepancies in the number of people that had registered to vote online, even before the polls were opened. Russia’s new constitutional amendments passed with 77.92% of votes in favour and 22.27% against. Both turnout and popular support for the amendments to the constitution were higher than when Russians voted to adopt the current Constitution itself in 1993.
Once again, Russia’s highest numbers were reported in Chechnya, where 97.92% of voters supported the
amendments amid turnout of 95.14%. Federal election officials initially reported a “protest vote” in the Komi Republic, but the results later reversed as more ballots were counted.
The voting in Russia’s constitutional plebiscite fell short of both Russian and international standards, says
the independent watchdog “Golos.” According to the movement’s experts, campaigning ahead of the vote, ballot processing and ballot counting all violated multiple norms.
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