Yashcheritsa (Lizard), an opposition news channel on Telegram whose founder was forced to leave Russia following police pressure, announced that it had resumed operations. The outlet covers issues affecting the Urals regions.
The channel had not published any news since June 14. That day, officers from the Center for Combating Extremism in Yekaterinburg detained Lizard journalist Bogdan Bukharin and seized his equipment. He subsequently lost access to his channels and was only able to regain it a month and a half later.
Following his detention, police charged Bukharin with displaying extremist symbols (Article 20.3 of Russia’s Code of Administrative Offenses) over posts mentioning the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK)* and the Russian Volunteer Corps*. A court fined the journalist 1,000 rubles. Bukharin left Russia three days after his detention.
