The criminal prosecution of Novaya Gazeta columnist Oleg Roldugin, who was arrested in a case of illegal collection of personal data, would have begun due to an anonymous telegram channel “More than Fact”. The BBC Russian service writes about this with reference to an acquaintance of Roldugin and another informed source.
More than 34 thousand users subscribe to the “More than Fact” channel on Telegram. The last post in it was published on April 8 – the day before the searches in Novaya Gazeta and the arrest of Oleg Roldugin.
As the BBC notes, the channel contains publications about the business jet flights of Dmitry Medvedev, Alexei Mordashov and Vladimir Yevtushenkov, which Roldugin wrote about in his articles.
In addition, one post, dated February 21, says, “The former driver of Kadyrov’s nephew Ruslan Ali Sultanov is selling his unfinished apartment with a balcony overlooking the Kremlin for 1.6 billion rubles.” On the same day, Novaya Gazeta published Roldugin’s investigation entitled “Foam of Society”, in which the journalist told how Ales Sultanov bought a penthouse apartment. The BBC added that the photos published on the Telegram channel “more than reality” and in the article published in Novaya Gazeta were identical.
On April 9, a search took place in the editorial office of Novaya Gazeta in Moscow, which lasted 13 hours. On the same day, newspaper columnist Oleg Roldugin was arrested. On April 10, the Tverskoy Court in Moscow arrested the journalist in a criminal case related to the illegal use of personal data (Article 272.1 of the Criminal Code).