Masked men intimidate family of "Caucasian Knot" journalist

Unknown persons in masks, introducing themselves as "veterans", tried to break down the door to the apartment of Vyacheslav Yaschenko, a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, after which they turned off electricity on the entire house floor. When they arrived, only the journalist's wife was at home; and she called the police.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 18, policemen searched Yaschenko's home in Volgograd, seizing his phone, laptop and storage media. They explained that the search was conducted within the case of Evgeniy Kochegin*, an activist, accused of spreading fake news about the Russian Army. The search was conducted with violations, the advocate has pointed out.

Vyacheslav's wife said that the above masked men people followed her into the house entrance; and when she entered the apartment, they began to persistently ring the doorbell. They first introduced themselves as "neighbours", and then called themselves "veterans of the special military operation (SMO)".

They demanded to open the door and shouted for Yaschenko to come out to them. Without waiting for this, they hit the door hard, after which electricity was turned off.

Prior to the visit of the masked men, Yaschenko was subjected to a spam attack: multiple calls and SMS messages from microcredit organizations began arriving at the journalist's phone number after his phone had been in an unlocked state for about 24 hours stayed with law enforcers, who had seized it during the search. "That is, someone makes applications for microloans, but confirmation codes come to me," Vyacheslav has stated.

A spam attack to his phone was repeated on January 23, after he visited the trial of the pensioner, Natalia Dorozhnova, who was found guilty of discrediting the Russian Army. "I don't know whether those who are taking revenge really want to take advantage of my position and get rich at my expense, or whether it's just pressure through spam attacks," Vyacheslav has suggested.

He supposes that there was an attempt at fraud on a particularly large scale. The journalist and his advocate plan to file a complaint against the disclosure of his personal data.

For the first time in his practice, Sergey Artyushkov, an advocate, has encountered the fact that after law enforcers had seized one's phone, the owner's personal data became available to third parties.

Any unauthorized use and disclosure of one's personal data, such as a telephone number, gives rise to turning to court, Svetlana Kuzevanova, a lawyer, has noted.

*Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.