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  02 december, 2019

  On the work of media outlets designated as foreign agents in Russia

  Author: Alexander Malkevich, no comments

  This is not a suggestion. I just want to tell you a story about the work of media outlets designated as foreign agents in Russia.

  On November 19, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported, or rather claimed, that not a single prisoner serving a life sentence in Russia has been released on parole. First of all, why should anyone who has been sent to prison for life be released on parole? This looks like a very strange reproach.

  I agree with my colleague at the Civic Chamber, Ilya Remeslo, who has suggested the following headline for RFE/RL: “No prisoner executed in the US has risen from the dead.”

  Second, if RFE/RL journalists worked better and checked their facts more carefully, they would have learned that since the establishment of penal colonies in Russia at least five such persons have been released after their sentences had been revised in accordance with the updated legislation or following the amendment of the charges against them. At the moment, some 265 persons serving a life sentence have been allowed to request parole.

  It is really disappointing that our “colleagues” cannot be punished for peddling lies.

  And one more thing: last week we met with our colleagues in Yekaterinburg to discuss an article posted by the local resource e1.ru about Nikolai Korolyov, the organizer of the terrorist attack at Moscow’s Cherkizovksy Market in 2006. Korolyov was sentenced to life imprisonment in a penal colony. However, for the past few years he has been requesting at least a short-term parole so that he can be with his wife and she can conceive a baby.

  Overall, one may feel that a well-orchestrated battle is being waged against Russia: look, they claim, Russia refuses to release terrorists or let them start a baby. In short, we are being accused of unlawfully persecuting our own citizens.

  Meanwhile, “their” media outlets are efficiently slinging mud at “inhuman” Russia. They should note, though, that “inhuman and undemocratic” Russia usually does not respond in any way to their abuses of the freedom of media.

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