As you may remember, Mr. Lesin directly pressured the journalists at Echo of Moscow (a Russian radio station) over my interview. Since there are public statements confirming these facts, we have filed a number of complaints (from me and from the Progress Party).
So, we received a reply from Roskomnadzor (Russia’s federal media and communications watchdog). They say that what we are complaining about is a criminal offense, so RKN cannot do anything about it. They told us to contact the Investigative Committee.
We are now waiting for responses from the prosecutor’s office and that very same Investigative Committee.
I think it is important to see this case through to some kind of logical conclusion. Censorship clearly exists, and everyone knows it. But for some reason, no one ever files complaints about it.
Then let a Putin-era court ultimately rule that Lesin’s phone calls to Venediktov, demanding that he not interview a certain person, do not constitute censorship. Then we will know the state’s official position.