Roman Dobrokhotov, editor-in-chief of The Insider, was released from the Akademichesky police department. He remained in witness status

“The search was nothing more than a targeted action to find an excuse to get into my apartment,” explained Roman.

According to Roman, at the moment the question is what is the task of the authorities.

“They can transfer me to the status of an accused, but it seems to me that they have already fulfilled their main goal – they have seized the gadgets, now they will try to find out everything about the sources of the investigations,” Dobrokhotov said.

It is possible that next Friday, according to Dobrokhotov, he may be personally declared a foreign agent regardless of this case. “It just happened that way,” concludes Roman.

Earlier, the lawyer of “Pravozashchita Otkrytka” Sergei Badamshin, who is familiar with the materials of the criminal case, said that the search warrant of The Insider editor-in-chief Roman Dobrokhotov was issued by the court on July 2, but the security forces began investigative measures only today, 5 days after the publication was turned on. in the register of mass media – “foreign agents”.

According to him, on April 26, 2021, a criminal case was opened against unidentified persons under Part 2 of Art. 128.1 of the Criminal Code (Slander), on June 13 it was suspended under paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Art. 207 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Then on June 30 the case was reopened by the prosecutor for a period of 1 month.

At the same time, the decision to authorize the search in the home was received by the investigating authorities on July 2, 2021. Almost a month later, The Insider was included in the register of media – “foreign agents”, and a few days before the expiration of the term of inquiry, the security forces came with a search.

Investigative measures were carried out at the request of the lawyer of the Dutch citizen Max van der Werff, who accused The Insider of libel.

According to the Internal Affairs Directorate for the South-Western Administrative District of Moscow, an unidentified person in an unidentified place, no later than November 12, 2020, posted a tweet about “the involvement of Dutch citizen Max van der Werff in disinformation about the downed Boeing MH-17” in the Twitter account of user Roman Dobrokhotov.

During the search, Dobrokhotov’s phones, laptop, tablets and passports were seized. He himself is in the case as a witness. In addition to the editor-in-chief of The Insider, his parents’ apartment was also searched.