Russia: Nailia Mullaeva's Equipment Confiscated By Police- CFWIJ Alarmed By Arbitrary Raids On Journalists
Location: Russia, Kazan
Date: May 22, 2023
Freelance journalist Nailia Mullaeva's home ransacked by police forces. Two mobile phones, a laptop, and two SIM cards seized during the search. The Coalition For Women In Journalism is outraged by Russian authorities' ongoing crackdowns on the media. We demand all confiscated equipment is immediately returned to Mullaeva.
“I honestly don’t understand what they want from me,” Mullaeva told CPJ of the most recent raid on her home. On the morning of May 16, Mullaeva was one of the subjects of a police mass raid in Kazan, the reporter told Sota.Vision. The search was fueled by authorities labeling several posts by Pavel Chumakov, an opposition-minded resident of Kazan, as "discrediting the Russian Army."
During the raid, police confiscated Mullaeva's equipment under the pretext that she was a witness in the investigation against Chumakov. However, Mullayeva says she is unfamiliar with Chumakov, his ideologies, and his posts. Mullaeva believes the mass raids were another effort to silence defiant voices against Putin’s regime.
Mullaeva is no stranger to such tactics used against journalists. On March 2, 2022, she was detained for opposing Russia's invasion of Ukraine. She was charged with "anti-war action" for holding a poster that read, “Putin is war, poverty, devastation. No war. Stop!" The case was dismissed for lack of corpus delicti.
On September 21, 2022, the CFWIJ reported that Mullaeva was detained in Kazan while covering an anti-mobilization protest for Sota.Vision. She was charged with "participating in a protest that caused obstruction."
Mullaeva left Kazan for Latvia shortly after due to the constant legal harassment she faced. Upon returning to Kazan in December 2022, she was immediately taken into custody for six days and later fined 30,000 rubles (US$480). The reporter’s parents' home was also searched, and her passport seized.
Nailia Mullaeva runs BIRDS, a Telegram channel with 190 subscribers focusing on reporting on social and political issues in Tatarstan. She also works as a freelance reporter for multiple media outlets, including Sota.Vision.
Media Freedom in Putin’s Russia
As Putin holds onto power with a clenched fist, Russia has suffered the implementation of a series of ambiguous extremism laws which have put freedom of expression under dire pressure. The media landscape is heavily dominated and controlled by the government. Journalists have had to navigate a treacherous and, at times, life-threatening press climate.
According to the new legislation passed unanimously on March 4, 2022, spreading information that the Kremlin deems “false” or contradictory to the state’s position on the war in Ukraine can be punishable with up to 15 years in prison.
CFWIJ's documentation of Russia's press freedom violations
Maria Ponomarenko was arrested on April 24, 2022, and detained for several months, where she was repeatedly tortured, then sentenced to six years for disseminating “fake news.”
On April 29, 2022, Ukrainian journalist Iryna Danylovych was abducted, imprisoned, and charged with fabricated charges. The court found Danylovych guilty of “illegal acquisition, transfer, sale, storage, transportation, shipment, or carrying of explosives or explosive devices'' and sentenced her to seven years in prison.
On March 14, 2022, Fox News Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra (Alexandra) Kuvshynova was killed by incoming fire by Russian troops near the village of Horenka, outside Kyiv.
Ten days after Kuvshynova's killing, journalist Oksana Baulina was killed in Kyiv amid a Russian rocket strike against the Ukrainian capital. Baulina was a member of opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation. She was forced into exile following Navalny's arrest, after which she joined The Insider as a correspondent.
The Coalition For Women In Journalism stands in solidarity with Nailia Mullaeva and demands all seized equipment is immediately returned to her. We are alarmed by the Russian police authorities' abuse of power to intimidate journalists and keep them from focusing on their reporting and disseminating information. The use of autocratic measures is detrimental to a country's progress.
The Coalition For Women In Journalism is a global organization of support for women journalists. The CFWIJ pioneered mentorship for mid-career women journalists across several countries around the world and is the first organization to focus on the status of free press for women journalists. We thoroughly document cases of any form of abuse against women in any part of the globe. Our system of individuals and organizations brings together the experience and mentorship necessary to help female career journalists navigate the industry. Our goal is to help develop a strong mechanism where women journalists can work safely and thrive.
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