News

The Main Investigations Directorate of the Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a criminal investigation in impeding legal activity of a Life news journalist in the city of Kiev and uncovered stealing of her belongings from her – crimes under article 144 and 161 of the RF Penal Code.

According to investigators, on 1 January 2015, Life news journalist Zhanna Karpenko made a coverage of a torchlight procession dedicated to the birthday of Stapan Bandera in the city of Kiev. Trying to stop her professional activity, unidentified people pushed her, took away her cell phone and smashed the photographer’s video camera.

We are aware that Ukrainian law enforcement authorities have launched an investigation. But we also realize that today’s Ukrainian authorities, to put it mildly, sympathize with followers of such kind of events. We have good reasons to assume that the investigation opened by Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior is a formality and it’s highly doubtful that anyone of the assailants, let alone those who had ordered the attack, will be seriously punished for the crime. Considering that and the fact that Karpenko is a Russian citizen, the investigators of the Russia’s Investigative Committee decided to open their own investigation to paint an impartial picture of the incident and identify the perpetrator.

Head of Media Relations                                                                                                      V.I. Markin