now authorities in Russia have detained
two Russian journalists on charges of
extremism accusing them of working for a
banned group founded by the late
opposition leader Alexa navali the two
men Sergey Caroline and Constantine
gabov both deny the charges and could
face years in prison if convicted they
both worked for deut before the channel
was banned and expelled from Russia a
Val movement is designated by Russian
authorities as an extremist group
meaning his staff and supporters can
face
prosecution Sergey lukashevsky head of
Andre sarov Center for human rights is
joining me now for more on this um hello
and uh welcome to the program uh SE two
journalists arrested over extremism
charges how significant is
this um yes it is unfortunately very
important because uh it is the next step
of of repressions against the people who
supported Alex naal and against uh
political activists and against
journalists because uh in fact this
extremism could mean any connections any
contacts with somebody of Naval team and
it is such a repressive strategy of
Russian authorities today to Proclaim uh
any any Community without any formal
borders uh Proclaim to Proclaim them
extremists and after that uh any
contacts any um any working together
could be recognized by the authorities
as extremism
and uh you could be arrested because of
it right I mean journalists are
repeatedly arrested in Russia how
dangerous is it for independent
journalists in
Russia uh for today the independent
journalism in Russia is in fact uh
absolutely prohibited because all really
really Independent Media have to work
from abroad have to work in Exile of
course there are still until today a lot
of people who are helping uh are helping
journalists who are working as a
journalists collecting
information uh and
um uh and collecting materials about
what what happens in in the country but
uh uh the normal work is absolutely
deconstructed and the only the
only possibility which still is today is
the work of uh International media and
these media today are under the threat
first most important was the case ofan
gich but the situation with K gabov is
the the sign that uh the situation have
becoming broader and broader and the
level of danger is escalating yeah so
what punishment awaits these journalists
that are being held
now uh unfortunately the accusation that
FES triy to to to make against them uh
means that they could be punished
maximum for uh up to six years of prison
and unfortunately there is very uh very
low possibility that uh uh the
sentence uh will be uh not of blaming
them as extremists okay Serge lki in
Berlin thank
you thank you