The editor-in-chief of the Telegram news channel Baza was arrested on Tuesday, his lawyer told Russian state media, as police searched the outlet’s main office in Moscow.
Gleb Trifonov, who has led Baza since 2022, was taken into custody after officers searched his home earlier in the day, lawyer Alexei Mikhalchik told the state-run TASS news agency. It was not immediately clear whether Trifonov faced any charges.
Two other Baza employees were briefly detained and questioned, but were later released without charges, Mikhalchik said. He added that he had not yet been able to contact Trifonov.
Mikhalchik said the arrest appears connected to a criminal investigation into abuse of power by a law enforcement official accused of leaking confidential information that later appeared on a Telegram channel.
Russia’s Investigative Committee announced an abuse of power probe on Tuesday, though it did not name Baza directly. However, the timing of the announcement and simultaneous searches in Moscow, as well as the Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk and Belgorod regions, suggest the case may be linked to the channel.
Earlier, the pro-Kremlin Telegram channel Nu Ranshe Vsekh published photos and a video showing law enforcement officers inside Baza’s office, with staff standing nearby. Baza later said police confiscated phones, computers and documents during the search.
Baza, which has more than 1.6 million subscribers on Telegram, is known for its close ties to law enforcement and frequently cites anonymous police sources in its reporting. The channel also has pro-government leanings.
Tuesday’s searches came nearly two months after a similar raid at the news outlet Ura.ru in Yekaterinburg, where the editor-in-chief was accused of bribing his uncle, a former police official.
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