Abakan: against the founder of the media, they opened an extremism case

In Abakan, a criminal case was opened on extremism against the founder of the New Focus Internet magazine, the editor-in-chief of which Mikhail Afanasyev has been in a pre-trial detention center in the case of the distribution of Fakes about the Russian Army, the network freedom reports .

The case was instituted after the examination of the texts of the articles of the New Focus, which the FSB was engaged in. Experts analyzed several articles on abuses by employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and came to the conclusion that they contain information that “offends public morality” of police officers and forms “intolerant attitudes” to them. Also in the texts of articles they saw the “propaganda of professional incompetence” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the “inferiority of representatives of law enforcement agencies”. For example, in the text “Unfinished composition of the system” or why the execution of families in the city of Artemovsk was sent out for the domestic murder “The author claims that in 2016,“ bandits ”killed a family in the village of Artemovsk in the south of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, but police officers issued an income murder incident.

The founder of the magazine "New Focus" is LLC "Expert-Media", which is headed by Mikhail Afanasyev. He is also the founder of the company and the editor of the "New Focus".

• The criminal case of the editor -in -chief of the Khakass magazine "New Focus" Mikhail Afanasyev reached trial. He is accused under the article on the distribution of "fakes" about the army of the Russian Federation, the press service of the Office of the Investigative Committee of the Republic said . According to investigators, Afanasyev distributed “false information” about the number of missing and wounded employees of the Khakass Directorate of the Russian Guard in the war in Ukraine. The journalist did not admit his guilt.
• Afanasyev was detained on April 13 and, by court order, was placed in jail. At the end of June, the Memorial recognized the journalist political prisoner, because "his persecution is aimed at intimidating journalists representing an alternative point of view on events in Ukraine." Mikhail Afanasyev threatens up to 10 years in prison under the article of part 2 of Art. 207.3 Criminal Code.
• After the outbreak of war against Ukraine, the Russian authorities adopted a number of laws, according to which any information differs from official messages of the Russian Ministry of Defense is announced by fakes. Because of this, dozens of journalists, political activists and ordinary citizens fell under criminal prosecution for several months.