Photo: Ranshe Vsekh

Police in Moscow carried out searches at the editorial office of the Baza Telegram channel and at the home of its editor-in-chief Gleb Trifonov on Tuesday, Baza has reported.

Baza, a pro-Kremlin breaking news channel which was established in 2019 and currently has over 1.6 million subscribers on Telegram, often publishes stories based on police leaks and is thought to have close ties to the security forces.

Trifonov’s home was searched first on Tuesday morning, after which he was taken to an unknown location. His current whereabouts are unknown, and no one has been able to contact him. The police then went to the Baza editorial office with a search warrant. The employees who were present at the time of the search have also stopped answering messages, according to Baza.

Telegram channel Ranshe Vsekh published footage of the search at the Baza editorial office, showing at least one man in a uniform wearing a balaclava.

The Russian Investigative Committee announced on Tuesday that it had opened a criminal case for abuse of power by police officers, elaborating that security forces in the Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk and Belgorod regions had handed over “restricted” information to a specific Telegram channel.

Searches relating to the case were carried out in Moscow, and the three aforementioned regions, the Investigative Committee said. State-owned news agency TASS confirmed that the searches at the Baza editorial office pertained to a similar criminal case.