Russia opens criminal cases against two more foreign journalists covering Ukraine’s Kursk incursion

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has opened a criminal case into two more foreign journalists who reported from Ukrainian-controlled areas of Russia’s southwestern Kursk region, state-owned Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported on Tuesday.

The FSB is investigating Nick Connolly, a journalist with German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, and Ukrainian news channel 1+1 reporter Natalya Nahorna for illegally entering Russia and “making video recordings in the area of Sudzha”, a town captured by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) as part of an ongoing incursion into Russian territory.

At least seven foreign journalists have been charged with illegally crossing Russia’s border to film dispatches about the AFU incursion.

Journalists Stefani Battistini and Simona Traini, from Italian television channel Rai 1, were the first to be investigated by the FSB after reporting directly from Sudzha and speaking to locals. Rai CEO Roberto Sergio said in a statement shortly before the criminal case was opened that Battistini and Traini would return to Italy for their “safety and personal protection”.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry summoned Italy’s Ambassador to Moscow, Cecilia Piccioni, on 16 August, accusing the journalists of “grossly violating Russian law and the basic rules of journalistic ethics”.

On Thursday, the FSB also opened criminal cases against CNN reporter Nick Paton Walsh and Ukrainian journalists Olesya Borovik and Diana Butsko for illegally crossing Russia’s border. All three reporters were placed on Russia’s wanted list.

The Foreign Ministry also summoned US Chargé d’Affaires Stephanie Holmes on 20 August “to lodge a strong protest” following the publication of a Washington Post article for which journalists crossed into Russia accompanied by AFU soldiers, though no criminal case has been opened yet.