Russia's FSB launches criminal case against DW reporter

Russia's domestic intelligence service, the FSB, on Tuesday announced criminal proceedings against two journalists, including DW's Kyiv correspondent Nick Connolly, for entering the Kursk region.

The FSB said Connolly, who reported from the town of Sudzha in the Ukrainian-held part of Russia's Kursk region last week, had crossed the border illegally.

While in Kursk, Connolly was embedded with Ukrainian troops. He interviewed ordinary Russian civilians about their experiences and also spoke to Ukrainian military personnel.

Connolly said on DW TV on Tuesday that Russia's move had not come as a surprise. 

"I think that was all to be expected. They had done this to other journalists that had gone there. This is just par for the course, basically. If you want to report on this war in Ukraine, you can’t realistically go to Russia as well," Connolly said.

"Even those media that are still operating in Russia, they have one team operating in Moscow, another here in Ukraine, because reporting on the facts on the ground here in Ukraine is enough to provoke a charge of discrediting the Russian army, according to Russian law."

"We are operating and reporting from Ukraine and occasionally there [Russia] as part of a Ukrainian embed so nothing changes for us. I think the bigger issue is that increasingly there are just bigger and bigger blind spots, because there are so many areas affected by this war where journalists can't get to."

Ukraine's Kursk incursion

Ukraine's incursion into Kursk, which western allies like the US and Germany said came as a surprise, began on August 6 when Ukrainian troops crossed the border.

Last week, the FSB launched a similar criminal case against Nick Paton Walsh, a British citizen who works as US broadcaster CNN's chief international security correspondent.

Russia has said it intends to prosecute all journalists entering the country this way and has so far launched seven such cases against foreign reporters.

The maximum penalty for individuals found guilty of illegally crossing the Russian border is five years in jail.

The Ukrainian military has been fending off Russia's full-scale invasion since February 2022 and Russia continues to occupy large parts of eastern and southern Ukraine.

Russia banned DW from broadcasting in Russia, leading to the Moscow bureau's closure, in early 2022. Soon after, it labeled DW a "foreign agent." Currently, lawmakers in the Duma parliament are recommending banning the broadcaster's operations and content across the country and labeling it "undesirable."

rc/msh (DW sources)