Russian Journalist sets herself on fire and dies, blaming Government: All you need to know

Team Udayavani, Oct 3, 2020, 12:00 PM IST

A Russian news editor has died after setting herself on fire in front of an interior ministry office in the city of Nizhniy Novgorod.

Prior to her self-immolation, Irina Slavina wrote on her Facebook page: “I ask you to blame the Russian Federation for my death.”

The Facebook post said law enforcement agents had been looking for “brochures, leaflets, accounts” from Open Russia, an opposition organization, financed by Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, a Kremlin critic, who had to flee Russia after spending more than a decade in prison.

The journalist, Irina Slavina, was the editor-in-chief of the opposition-oriented news site Koza.Press, which advertises itself as having “no censorship, no orders from above.”

Her self-immolation came a day after police raided her apartment as part of an investigation into an opposition group

The search was conducted as part of a criminal case against Mikhail Ioselevich, a local entrepreneur, who the authorities suspect was working together with Open Russia, officially regarded as an “undesirable organization” in the country.

As reported by NY times, Ms. Slavina’s death came against the backdrop of rising dangers confronting journalists who write about subjects deemed objectionable by the Kremlin. The number of threats and attacks against journalists in the country has surged in recent years, according to incidents compiled by Justice for Journalists, an advocacy group.

The report further states that Local authorities throughout the Russian regions have been putting pressure on independent media outlets and journalists. Many have quit established publications to create their own small websites or blogs.

It is said that Ms. Slavina published investigative articles about the internal workings of the Federal Security Service, the most powerful security agency in Russia.