Novaya Gazeta journalist Oleg Roldugin has been charged under Part 3 of Article 272 of the Russian Criminal Code (illegal access to computer information as part of a group), the newspaper reports.
The independent press representative was detained on April 9, after which his home and the Novaya Gazeta editorial office were searched.
The journalist was subsequently remanded in custody until May 10. Investigators consider "requests to intelligibility bots on Telegram for the purpose of obtaining information" to be key evidence. After his detention, law enforcement officers gained access to his phone and account, and information about his requests to the bots was read out in court.
It was previously reported that the Telegram channel "More Than a Fact," attributed to Roldugin, published information about the business jet flights of Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev and billionaires Alexei Mordashov and Vladimir Yevtushenkov. There were also posts about the former driver of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov's nephew. It was reported that Ruslan Alisultanov was selling his penthouse under construction with a view of the Kremlin for 1.6 billion rubles.
