A Moscow court has extended the pre-trial detention of Oleg Roldugin, an investigative journalist for the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, until 10 July, deepening concerns over the Kremlin’s campaign against press freedoms. The Tverskoy District Court on 6 May granted the prosecution’s request to keep Roldugin in custody, rejecting pleas from his legal team for house arrest or bail. His case is one of a series of measures that, viewed from Moscow, fit a pattern of intensifying legal action against critical voices under the guise of data protection legislation.

Roldugin was arrested on 9 April in a dawn raid that also saw his newsroom searched. The charges, brought under Article 272.1 of the Russian Criminal Code, allege he illegally obtained and stored personal data as part of a group using a software bot known as Sherlock. During the hearing, the journalist partially admitted to using the tool but insisted he acted alone and could not influence the investigation since all evidence had already been seized. His defence team argued that he poses no flight risk, noting his disabled parents and three young children who depend on him, and pointed to a serious eye injury that makes detention particularly harsh.

Analysts in London observe that the application of data-crime provisions to journalism is unprecedented in scale and signals a deliberate attempt to criminalise routine reporting that involves processing public-source information. The bot in question, according to court materials, was designed to scrape open databases, a method widely used by journalists and researchers globally. The prosecution, however, contends that the journalist’s actions constituted a grave offence committed with accomplices still at large, a claim his lawyers reject as unfounded.

Looking ahead, the prolongation of Roldugin’s detention until mid-summer suggests the authorities intend to pursue the case to a more advanced stage, possibly to secure a conviction that would carry up to six years of imprisonment. From the perspective of media rights organisations, this is not an isolated episode but part of a broader reconfiguration of Russia’s legal environment, where vaguely worded digital offences are increasingly deployed against independent reporters. The message to the remaining outlets that have not yet been forced abroad is unmistakable: covering sensitive topics now carries personal liberty as a risk.