Kommersant, based in Moscow, is not on Putie's friendly list.Journalists Flee The Paradise Of Vladimir Paranoid
Yuri Bagrov and Fatima Tlisova who were reporting from the volatile North Caucasus have been granted political asylum in the United States, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said Sunday. The reporters said they had emigrated because of persecution of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). This is the first time that Russian journalists have received political asylum in the United States.
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“The most terrible thing is that they had to flee simply because they were doing their job well,” says Nina Ognyanova, Europe and Central Asia coordinator at the Committeee.
The two journalists have repeatedly caused indignation with Russian authorities. Yuri Bagrov worked for Radio Freedom and reported about a possible role of the FSB in adbuctions in Ingushetia on the North Caucasus. In an alleged retaliation, Mr. Bagrov was charged with forging documents. The journalist told Kommersant off the record that authorities would never forgive him for his reports and close friendship with another critical journalist, Andrey Babitsky.
Fatima Tlisova reported for The Associated Press in 2005, covering a militant attack on Nalchik, which left 129 people dead. Kommersant reported in March that Ms. Tlisova was seeking political asylum in the United States, something that she was denying at the time. She said that someone was trying to poison her last October.
The decision is all the more noticeable after the U.S. Department of State issued a report in May with blistering critism on media freedom in Russia. The U.S. State Department was unavailabe for comment on Sunday.
“I don’t find anything surprising about this news,” says Igor Yakovenko, secretary general of the Russian Union of Journalists. “Real journalists are forced out of mass media with all possible means.”
Like the State Department, Leaky Loony Leahy was unavailable for comment.
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