Novaya Gazeta Europe journalist Ilya Azar
A Moscow district court has ordered the arrest in absentia of Novaya Gazeta Europe journalist Ilya Azar on charges of organising the activities of an “undesirable” pro-democracy organisation, Azar confirmed on Saturday.
According to the case file, the decision was made on Friday by Nikulinsky district Judge Alexei Bobkov, who has previously been found to have issued apparently politically motivated decisions on over 100 administrative cases, according to a Novaya Gazeta Europe data investigation published in February.
The offense is punishable by up to six years in prison. Azar, who now lives outside of Russia, was designated by Russia’s Justice Ministry as a “foreign agent” in February and placed on the Interior Ministry’s wanted list in mid-May.
The charges are linked to his involvement in the Deputies of Peaceful Russia movement, an association of anti-war local deputies advocating nonviolent political change, which the Prosecutor General’s Office declared “undesirable” in August 2024, effectively criminalising its activity.
In April, law enforcement raided the homes of Azar’s family members and associates, including former Moscow municipal deputies Sergey Vlasov, Igor Glek, Galina Filchenko and Nodari Khanashvili. Authorities claim the group published online materials encouraging new participants to join the movement, an act prosecutors argue constitutes illegal recruitment.
Azar’s case is the latest in a wave of efforts to prosecute independent journalists and activists living abroad since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 for their ties to civil society initiatives in Russia.
Several high-profile journalists have been handed harsh prison sentences in absentia, including Novaya Gazeta Europe’s editor-in-chief Kirill Martynov, who was sentenced to six years in prison for a similar charge to that of Azar’s in April.
Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office declared Novaya Gazeta Europe an “undesirable organisation” in June 2023, a legal status that compels organisations to cease all activity and dissolve themselves in Russia, while also fining or imprisoning individuals with ties to the organisation in question.
Other “undesirable organisations” in Russia include Transparency International, the World Wildlife Fund, and the Elton John AIDS Foundation.