The editor-in-chief of Kiselevsk News left Russia after the attack and pressure from the security forces

Natalia Zubkova, editor-in-chief of Novosti Kiselevsk, left Russia after the attack and the interest in her from law enforcement officers. about this . She told Taiga.info

The journalist left the country about a week ago. Initially, she left her native Kiselevsk, and then from Russia.

“I did not feel safe on the territory of the Russian Federation. And the arrival of the investigator Varlamova in Yekaterinburg showed that they can get me and my child in any corner of our beautiful country. They ask me if I'm considering political asylum - I don't. I will continue the topic of black realtors in Kuzbass, ecology, violation of the rights of indigenous peoples, I will continue my work, ” explained to the publication. Zubkova

At the end of February 2021, Zubkova was attacked while walking her dog: an unknown person threw her into the snow and threatened to kill her daughters if the woman “opens her mouth just once more.” The journalist filed many applications with the police, the FSB and the Investigative Committee, but the law enforcement agencies did not react to them in any way. After that, the journalist left the city for Yekaterinburg.

In early April, an investigator from the Kiselevsk Department of the Investigative Committee arrived with policemen at Zubkova's rented apartment in Yekaterinburg to summon her for interrogation as a victim. Despite her status, Zubkova considered the arrival of the investigator as an act of pressure on her.

• In May 2020, the prosecutor's office demanded that an administrative case be opened against Natalya Zubkova for disseminating false information due to articles about underground fires, but was refused.
• The journalist claimed that her apartment in Kiselevsk was being tapped: after her conversation with a SOTA correspondent, a text with verbatim quotations from their conversation was published on the site “Without Censorship”. The SOTA journalist herself, who came to the Kemerovo region from Moscow, spoke about surveillance in the region.
• The Kemerovo website Abazhur wrote about the persecution of Natalya Zubkova. On February 20, 2021, its editor-in-chief Roman Kupriyanov was searched in the case of illegal access to computer information.

The case was initiated due to the publication on the Abazhur YouTube channel of four videos with an audio recording of a conversation at a reception with Governor Tsivilev. Kupriyanov himself links the initiation of the case and the search with a campaign in the region against independent journalists.