2024-07-04 09:12:32
An exiled Russian journalist accused authorities in Russia of breaking the law again in a bid to intimidate his critics after a court labeled him and his wife an “extremist association”, Reuters reported.
A court in St. Petersburg imposed a ban on the alleged extremist activities of Alexander Nevzorov and his wife Lydia. Three pieces of land, a building, a motor vehicle and shares in a company belonging to the two were confiscated, a court spokesman said, quoted by Reuters.
Nevzorov said in an interview on YouTube that for him this court decision is a test action that paves the way for similar procedures for other people. According to him, the financial aspect is not as important as the message sent by the court order.
“This is the first such case in the history of mankind in the issue of justice. It is remarkable, of course,” said Nevzorov.
“Putin’s country does not care at all what pennies it can collect with such confiscations. Naturally, it needs to intimidate people,” adds the dissident.
Nevzorov, who currently lives outside of Russia, rose to fame in the 1980s as the host of the news show 600 Seconds. Then Mikhail Gorbachev’s reformist policy of “glasnost” gave Soviet journalists the opportunity for the first time to carry out uncompromising investigations into previously confidential matters such as corruption, Reuters notes.
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Nevzorov has frequently criticized President Vladimir Putin and his war in general on his YouTube channel, which has nearly two million subscribers. The exiled journalist was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison last February for “spreading fake news” about the Russian armed forces, Reuters recalls.
The Kremlin says Russia is waging an existential war in Ukraine that requires the nation to rally behind Putin. The authorities present the Russians, who fled the country and denounced the war from abroad, as traitors stabbing the motherland in the back, BTA reported.
The lower house of parliament, the State Duma, approved a law in January that allows the seizure of property on Russian territory from citizens living abroad who “malign” the Russian military or spread false information about it, as well as incite extremist activities or call for sanctions against Russia.
Nevzorov says that nothing is worth more than his personal freedom and he is satisfied with the court decision. “I am the first who was able to experience the pleasure of a complete break – even in the smallest material things – with the cannibalistic, degenerate regime in Russia, with everything there that was dear or for some reason important to me,” concludes the journalist .