Shock after Russian journalist sets self on fire, dies
The editor of a Russian independent news site died on Friday after setting herself on fire carrying out a police raid in a probe targeting an opposition group, her website confirmed.
The news headlines site Koza.Press in the industrial city of Nizhny Novgorod reported that its editor-in-chief Irina Slavina had "set herself burning in front of the authorities headquarters."
Investigators in the location later confirmed her death in a statement saying her body have been found with "signs of thermal burns", while saying there was "no basis" to hook up her death to police raids since she was only a witness in a probe.
The journalist had written on Facebook hours before her death: "I request you to blame my death on the Russian Federation."
A video posted on social media reportedly showed her setting herself burning on a bench.
Slavina's website carried out investigative reporting and covered opposition to President Vladimir Putin, her friends and supporters said on Friday, a rarity in regional journalism which faces pressure from local authorities.
She "died from her injuries," her site reported, saying her husband had confirmed. The site became inaccessible shortly afterwards.
Her death prompted tributes from journalists and activists including rights advocate Pavel Chikov who wrote on the Telegram messenger that he previously caused her twice when she was charged with disrespecting the authorities and publishing fake news.
Slavina had written on social media on Thursday that police and federal guards burst into her flat in an early morning raid.
She said these were searching for evidence of links to Open Russia, an opposition movement funded by Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky that is ruled undesirable by the authorities, amid allegations that it funded protests in the town.
"I don't have anything," said the journalist, adding that police confiscated her notebooks and computer together with laptops and phones owned by her and her husband and daughter.
"I have no means of production," she said.
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who's recovering in Berlin after being poisoned in Russia using what German doctors said was military-grade nerve agent, described Slavina's death as "terrible."
"A criminal case was fabricated against Slavina under a political charge. Yesterday, her home was searched, doors were cut out and computers confiscated," he wrote.
"They absolutely drove her to suicide."
Local news website NN.ru reported that people were holding a vigil in Slavina's memory on a city street, with one man holding a placard saying "the state kills." - AFP
