Vasily Piskaryov knows about investigations. The 55-year-old was a long-time prosecutor, then five years vice-chief of Sledstwenny Komitet, that powerful investigative committee of Russia, which reports directly to the president.
Today Piskaryov sits for the Kremlin party United Russia in the State Duma and tries to make a name for himself as the protector of his country. He heads the recently-created Special Committee of the Parliament "In Defense of State Sovereignty of Russia and Countermeasure of Foreign Intervention". Now the committee has presented the first results - and they concern Deutsche Welle (DW).
The international channel reports from Moscow in German, English and Russian. This seems to displease Moscow. Independent, well-researched Russian-language journalism takes place almost exclusively on the Internet and a few newspapers - the state-financed TV channels dominate the media market Russia, serve as the mouthpiece of the regime.
Tweet as a reason of complaint
At the end of July, thousands of citizens were protesting for the admission of opposition candidates to the Moscow parliamentary elections and police violence, many foreign media reported, including SPIEGEL and DW. In a tweet written in Russian, the broadcaster showed a video of demonstrators walking through the city center and "Moscow, go out on the street!" call. This slogan is also reflected in the text of the tweet.
A quote, says the editor.
A call for unauthorized protests and thus political interference is claimed by the Piskaryov Commission in its unappealing and unanimous report.
The DW had violated the right to assembly, information and voting, it is now. The demonstration in Moscow had not been approved, as is often the case when the opposition wants to assemble. First, the spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry had raised the accusation of interference in Russian affairs against DW. Piskarjov had then twice invited representatives of the station to talk - which was more like a summons than a serious attempt to exchange.
Extremism allegations
What is new is the accusation that in DW reports there are "indications of the justification of extremism". The Commission refers to a 2009 article on combating terrorism in the North Caucasus and reporting on the case of a blogger sentenced to five years' imprisonment for a tasteless tweet about the children of police officers.
On the one hand, it seems as if Piskarjow's committee could find little against the DW. On the other hand, extremism allegations are tricky in so far as the relevant paragraph of the Criminal Code is spongy and therefore used by authorities to condemn critics and oppositionists.
Tobias Schwarz / REUTERS
Deutsche Welle office in Berlin: In Russia free and unrestricted report
Deutsche Welle denies allegations
DW has rejected the allegations. "We expect from the Russian authorities that all DW correspondents in Russia can report freely and without restrictions," says a statement by the Broadcasting Council. The Foreign Office in Berlin has also switched on.
Although the parliamentary committee decides nothing in the DW case, only makes recommendations to the authorities, but the pressure on the DW has increased significantly in recent weeks. The Russian state channels report extensively on the events - and only the word "extremism" in connection with the German broadcaster stigmatized its work. In addition, it is not clear why it is now against DW. Should the Moscow protests be re-presented as externally controlled? Or should a sign also be sent to other foreign media, they are undesirable in the country '?
From agent designation to accreditation verification
At the end of 2017, the so-called Foreign Agent Law against the Media came into force in Russia, which initially only affected NGOs (read the background here). This is a vaguely worded law. According to this, media must be described as "foreign agents" who are "politically active" and are financed by foreign countries. Since the DW receives its funds from the budget of the Federal Republic (unlike, for example, ARD and ZDF, which finance themselves through the budget levy), the sender's name circulated from the beginning in connection with the law.
So far, the Russian Ministry of Justice lists nine media, all funded by the US: the broadcasters Voice of America and Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty with seven of their regional and thematic affiliates.
If it goes to Piskarjow, the German wave should be added to the list. Should this happen, the broadcaster could continue to work, but would have to disclose its finances to the authorities, which would result in a huge bureaucratic effort. In addition, he would have to call in his publications "agent", which means a brand in Russia, since the term is often equated with spy.
And Piskarjow goes even further: He asks Ministry of Justice, FSB intelligence, the Prosecutor General's Office and the media regulatory authority Roskomnadsor to investigate the reporting of DW, which has until 2025 on a TV broadcasting license in Russia. And above all, he wants the Foreign Ministry, as competent authority, to check the accreditation. That would then meet every single DW correspondent, says lawyer Damir Gajnutdinow of the human rights organization Agora.
Meanwhile, committee chairman Piskarjow has announced who he wants to tackle next. He wants to do the coverage of the Russian service of the British BBC and the US station Radio Liberty - also because of possible violations of the electoral law.