In Kazan, security forces conducted searches in the office of the publication Sirazhi Suze and the house of its editor-in-chief Iskander Siradzhi — investigative actions took place in the case against Radio Liberty journalist Alsou Kurmashova. Siradzhi spoke about this on Instagram, and Idel.Realii drew attention to the publication.
The security forces believe that Siradzhi is connected with the case of Kurmashova, who is accused of failing to provide documents for inclusion in the register of “foreign agents” (part 3 Article 330.1 of the Criminal Code). On October 23, the Sovetsky District Court of Kazan sent her to a pre-trial detention center; this decision was later approved by the Supreme Court of Tatarstan.
According to the investigation, the journalist carried out “purposeful collection of information in the field of military, military-technical activities of the Russian Federation” and at the same time did not notify the authorities of the need to include her in the register of “foreign agents”.
In particular, according to Tatar-Inform, Kurmashova was interested in the number of mobilized people in one of the universities in Tatarstan. According to Siraji, the investigation believes that he had something to do with this. During the search, security forces seized equipment from the journalist’s office and home, including those belonging to his children and wife.
“They collected and took away phones that had not worked for ten years. They even took a video camera without a flash drive. They wanted to "paralyze" all my activities <…> Computers are my professional tools. They should have looked on the spot or, after a quick check, returned them to me. They are depriving a large family of work and food,” the journalist commented on the seizure of equipment.