New Wheels journalist from Kaliningrad received political asylum in France

Kaliningrad journalist Alexei Malinovsky from the newspaper Novye Kolyolas received political asylum in France, reports , citing the newspaper's publisher Igor Rudnikov. Sever.Realii

The journalist and his family left the country in September and asked for political asylum. According to Rudnikov, the departure took place “in front of the security forces,” who did not interfere with this.

In October 2020, searches were carried out in the editorial office of Novye Koles and at the Malinovsky house . Force was used against the journalist. The reason for the search was an article about Colonel Andrey Pershikov, head of the operational-investigative unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It said that he "protects" entrepreneurs who are engaged in issuing work permits and patents and other documents for migrants.

• A criminal case was initiated against Igor Rudnikov, the founder of the publication Novye Kolesa, under the article on extortion (paragraph “b” of part 3 of article 163 of the Criminal Code). The court reclassified the charge of attempted arbitrariness (part 1 of article 330 with the application of part 3 of article 30 of the Criminal Code), and also found the journalist guilty of not reporting that he had a residence permit in the United States (article 330.2 of the Criminal Code) . Rudnikov was sentenced to 550 hours of compulsory work, but was released from punishment - the court set off the time he spent in the pre-trial detention center. OVD-Info spoke in detail about this case and the circumstances of the attack on the journalist, which was committed in 2016. in September 2020 . The co-founder and publisher of Novye Koles, Svetlana Berezovskaya, who was a witness in the Rudnikov case, was denied political asylum in Sweden
• In 2018, employees of Novye Koles complained that, under pressure from the security forces and because of threats of dismissal, the newspaper was no longer sold in newsstands in Kaliningrad. Before that, a number was confiscated from the stores, which told about the torture by security forces of a local resident Alexander Zakamsky, who died in a pre-trial detention center. In February 2020, the court once again ruled to close the publication.