The editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Our Version” was fined for an article that Roskomnadzor employees “will be taught to read the thoughts of Russians”

Magistrate Judge of Court District No. 377 in Moscow Albina Veryasova fined journalist Ruslan Gorevoy 60 thousand rubles under the protocol on “abuse of media freedom” (Part 9 of Article 13.15 of the Administrative Code). Mediazona found information about this on the website of the capital’s courts.

Gorevoy is the editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Our Version”. The court ruling indicated his position, but the information with the name of the publication was removed.

The reason for the protocol against the journalist was an article entitled “Officials will be taught to read the thoughts of Russians,” published in the newspaper “Our Version” in February 2025. This material is not currently publicly available.

According to Roskomnadzor, the article “contains deliberately unreliable socially significant information disseminated under the guise of reliable messages.” In particular, the material states that special educational programs will be purchased for Roskomnadzor employees, the purpose of which is to master cyber intelligence skills and identify users of social networks and instant messengers.

The authors of the article “Officials will be taught to read the thoughts of Russians” refer to data from the State Procurement service. At the same time, Roskomnadzor claims that the journalists of “Our Version” distorted the essence of the technical specifications of the tenders. According to the department, the courses are necessary to improve the OSINT skills of employees.

The officials’ complaints were prompted by the wording “collection and analysis of information about users”, “cyber intelligence methods”, “collection of information about people”, “compilation of behavioral portraits”, “assessment of the trustworthiness of Russians” and “unlimited power over the confidential information of citizens”, which were used by the authors of the article.

In addition, Roskomnadzor called “unreliable” the statement in the article that “various advanced training courses for officials are often conducted only in order to master budgets.”

The editor-in-chief of Our Version did not come to the court hearing; he did not admit his guilt. The lawyer representing Gorevoy’s interests insisted that the article “Officials will be taught to read the thoughts of Russians” did not pose any threat. Judge Albina Veryasova rejected these arguments.