Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court has ordered that Oleg Roldugin, executive editor of the independent Russian outlet Novaya Gazeta and co-founder of the newspaper Sobesednik, which was shut down in 2024, be held in pretrial detention until May 10, according to a report by Mediazona. He is accused of the illegal use and transfer of personal data committed by a group, under Part 3 of Article 272.1 of Russia’s Criminal Code.
Roldugin was detained the previous day, April 9, after searches first at his apartment and then at the Novaya Gazeta newsroom, the latter of which lasted 13 hours. The state news agency RIA Novosti published a video of the journalist’s arrest.
Security officers seized equipment and documents, and all staff present in the newsroom were questioned and required to sign non-disclosure agreements. Lawyers were not allowed to see the journalist until the evening.
The Interior Ministry said the searches were part of an investigation into the collection of citizens’ personal data from “private storage resources” and the subsequent use of that information in publications described as “negative in nature.”
At the hearing, the lead investigator asked the court to place Roldugin in custody, citing items found during a search that allegedly “indicated unlawful activity,” as well as the apparent risk that he could flee abroad. The prosecution supported the request.
The journalist denied any wrongdoing and said he had “assumptions” about which investigation was being used against him, though he expressed “serious doubts” that it involved a recent report about the nephew of Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov. Novaya Gazeta ran Roldugin’s investigation, titled “How a former aide to Kadyrov’s nephew acquired one of Russia’s most expensive penthouses,” on Feb. 21.
Roldugin’s lawyer, Marina Andreeva, argued for a softer measure, saying the case contained “no objective factual basis.” Judge Alexandra Lashina nevertheless ordered Roldugin sent to a pretrial detention center.
During questioning, Roldugin said he ran a Telegram channel containing exclusive information that, in his own words, “could not be used in journalistic work.” Law enforcement officers seized the journalist’s laptop, computer, hard drives, and press credentials. Security personnel also reviewed his Telegram correspondence, including chats with bots. The criminal case in which Roldugin later became a defendant was opened on March 10 against and involves a number of unidentified targets.
It is not a surprise that Roldugin’s journalistic activities caught the attention of the authorities in Moscow. Five of his most notable investigations are outlined below.
1. On the multibillion-ruble property holdings of Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev
At Sobesednik, which was shut down in 2024 under pressure from Russian authorities, Roldugin served first as deputy editor in chief and later as editor in chief. In 2022, the paper published his investigation into the real estate holdings of Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev, the son of the Russian Security Council’s then-Secretary, Nikolai Patrushev. The investigation found that the younger Patrushev and his family owned property worth more than 3 billion rubles ($39 million). One of the estates is located inside the protected Serebryany Bor (lit. “Silver Pinewood”) park in northwest Moscow; notably, information about this particular property is absent from both cadastral maps and the state registry. Journalists managed to photograph cars parked in the yard with license plates registered to Patrushev and his civil partner, Marina Artemyeva.
2. On funds collecting millions in donations for the invasion of Ukraine without oversight
Before that, Roldugin reported on “support funds” for Russia’s so-called “special military operation” that collected millions of rubles in donations without transparent reporting. One of them, called “Blagodeteli” (lit. “Benefactors”), was founded by pro-war blogger Roman Alekhin, who at one time was an adviser to the now-former governor of the Kursk Region, Alexei Smirnov, who on April 6 was sentenced to 14 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to charges that he had accepted bribes “of a large size” in connection with the construction of defensive fortifications in the region. According to official data from Russia’s Federal Tax Service, the “Benefactors” fund with which blogger Alekhin was associated collected 12 million rubles in 2024 but spent only 50,000 rubles ($650) on charitable activities, while its wage bill tallied up to 2.6 million rubles ($33,700).
3. On Viktor Yanukovych’s Sochi estate
Roldugin also uncovered a mansion in Sochi belonging to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia after the Revolution of Dignity in 2014. The ownership became clear thanks to extracts from Russia’s property registry, which listed the company Sofina as the lessee of the land on which the estate sits. Sofina was at various times run by Milana Lozovskaya and Konstantin Kovalenko. Kovalenko worked for a company involved in finishing Yanukovych’s Ukrainian residence in Mezhyhirya, while Lozovskaya works for Shchedrodar, a company controlled by Yanukovych’s civil partner, Lyubov Sadykova (Polezhai).
4. On Putin’s secret bunkers
Roldugin also authored an investigation into underground shelters built for Vladimir Putin. One of them, located in the closed city of Mezhgorye in the Ural Mountains, was built by Construction Directorate No. 30 — the same company that built Putin’s palace on the Black Sea. Several other similarly secret facilities are hidden beneath central Moscow.
5. On a former aide to Kadyrov’s nephew who bought elite property in Moscow
In February of this year, Novaya Gazeta published Roldugin’s investigation into how Ruslan Alisultanov, a former aide to Chechya head Ramzan Kadyrov’s nephew Ibragim Zakriyev, bought an elite penthouse in Moscow. The property is located in a building directly opposite the Kremlin and has an area of more than 1,000 square meters. Another luxury Moscow property owned by Alisultanov is a 200-square-meter apartment in the Reka residential complex near Sobytie Park on the banks of the Ramenka River. Alisultanov also became the owner of the Russian assets of French multinational food corporation Danone after the company withdrew from the Russian market following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.