Artyom Kriger is one among 4 newshounds these days dealing with just about six years in jail on fees of “extremism” over alleged ties to the past due opposition determine Alexei Navalny.
Kriger — along side Antonina Favorskaya, Konstantin Gabov and Sergei Karelin — used to be arrested final yr on fees of “taking part in an extremist neighborhood.”
The newshounds are accused of “amassing subject material, getting ready and modifying movies” for Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Basis and his Navalny LIVE YouTube channel.
Favorskaya and Kriger’s employer, the impartial information outlet SOTAVision, has time and again denied the accusations, announcing neither journalist has ever labored for Navalny’s organizations.
Favorskaya and Kriger delivered their ultimate statements in closed court docket hearings this week forward of the decision. Favorskaya’s letter containing her speech used to be blocked through jail censors.
The Moscow Occasions publishes Kriger’s court docket speech, edited for period and readability.
My identify is Artyom Kriger, I’m 24 years outdated, and I’m writing my ultimate commentary from a mobile in a unique unit of the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention heart in February 2025. As I write the primary traces of this speech, I understand that if any individual had been to learn only the start, they could think it’s the paintings of a extremely bad prison watching for sentencing — as a result of who else can be stored in isolation in a Moscow detention heart in 2025, if now not a prison? That’s the logical conclusion, proper?
However issues don’t seem to be so easy in a rustic known as the Russian Federation. In fact that this ultimate commentary isn’t being written through a deadly prison however through an peculiar journalist — Artyom Kriger. I’ve been held in custody and remoted from society for the previous 8 months, and I’ve been added to [state financial watchdog] Rosfinmonitoring’s record of extremists and terrorists just because, for 4 and a part years, I diligently performed my skilled tasks as a good, incorruptible and impartial journalist. The core of the accusation towards me is ‘participation in an extremist workforce.’ On this context, we will recall the good creator George Orwell, who stated: ‘In a time of common deceit, telling in truth a progressive act.’ I might paraphrase Orwell and say: in [President Vladimir] Putin’s Russia, being a good {and professional} journalist — now not a disgraceful propagandist — is handled as a crime and extremist task.
So how did it occur that Artyom Kriger ended up in jail in 2024? Let’s take a temporary have a look at my existence. I had at all times sought after to be a journalist. I’ve at all times beloved filming movies, developing stories on other subjects, arising with storylines and producing concepts for segments. Simply as any individual may dream of changing into a pilot, a firefighter, a creator, a supervisor or a physician, I at all times dreamed of being a journalist. My eyes lit up and my center raced on the considered bringing knowledge to other people via movies, articles and different sorts of media. Again in class, I began developing video clips, brainstorming tale concepts and writing a couple of vary of subjects, all with a unmarried purpose in thoughts: to increase my talents, achieve revel in and ensure this trail used to be in reality mine. From the college school room, I already knew that my existence can be inextricably related to journalism.
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I used to be, am and can proceed to be dedicated to social and political journalism. I absolutely understood the dangers of this career in Russia. Being an impartial, fair {and professional} journalist and dealing with impartial media right here way repeatedly dealing with the specter of imprisonment, violence and severe monetary issues. The most productive expression to sum all of it up may well be: ‘to revel in firsthand the entire charms of a repressive state.’
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I didn’t wish to run. I didn’t wish to are living in worry. I sought after to end up that it’s conceivable — and essential — to do journalism in Russia. If I needed to pay for this trust with my freedom or my existence, then so be it. That’s now not an exaggeration — I in reality imagine this, as I write those phrases in February 2025, as a part of my ultimate commentary in a prison case.
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I stayed in Russia, developing, construction, producing journalistic concepts, undertaking interviews, filming vox pops and broadcasting from Moscow on each and every primary tale. Once I had the uncommon probability to go away Russia for a couple of days to relaxation, many pals instructed me to not come again. However I at all times responded, ‘Why will have to I be afraid? What am I doing mistaken? I’m only a journalist — now not a prison.’ And that’s how I lived and labored — till June 18, 2024, once they got here for me.
They broke into my rental, pinned me to the ground face down and took me to a pre-trial detention heart, bodily stripping me of my freedom. Now I will’t paintings. All I will do is take a seat on this mobile — and write my ultimate commentary.
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I’m a real patriot of Russia. I don’t want Russia to be in isolation, however to be revered right through the sector — now not feared. I would like us to have freedom inside of our personal nation in order that other people like me can paintings in journalism with out fearing for our freedom or our lives. I imagine within the switch of energy and the separation of powers. I would like Russia to develop into a in reality democratic state, now not stay a totalitarian nation. Is that actually so tough?
If, in 2025, I’ve to pay for this conviction and this place with my freedom, then I’m able for that. Nobody will ever power me to imagine within the insanity that the jail machine, the investigative our bodies, the prosecutors and the courts are seeking to impose on me — that I’m an extremist, a prison, and that I need to be imprisoned as a result of I broke the regulation. I will be able to by no means imagine that. Till my final breath and heartbeat, I will be able to proceed to mention that the whole lot that took place to me since June 18, 2024 — from the day of my arrest to the day of my eventual free up — is not anything however utter insanity and absurdity.
Let historical past be the pass judgement on — it’ll dot the entire i’s.
And I will be able to end my ultimate commentary with the next phrases: Freedom for Artyom Kriger! Let me out! Down with the insanity and absurdity! Might commonplace sense succeed! The forces of fine are on my aspect!
