Yelena Kostyuchenko

Affiliated media: Novaya Gazeta, Meduza, Journalist

Incident date: August 15, 2023

Attack type:

Wiretapping / surveillance without a court decree

Who attacked: Authorities

Location: Russia, Moscow, Moscow

Additional information:

On March 30, Yelena was in Zaporizhzhya and was preparing to leave for Mariupol. Unexpectedly, a colleague from Novaya Gazeta called her and told her that she had been contacted by well-informed sources who already knew about the planned trip to Mariupol (although this information was not public) and warned her that the Kadyrov troops had orders to find and kill Kostyuchenko (the Kadyrov troops, as part of the Rosgvardia, were actually fighting near Mariupol at the time and were standing at roadblocks). The colleague added that at first she refused to believe the source, but the source included a fragment of the wiretap; in this audio recording Yelena discussed a trip to Mariupol with someone. The source did not explain to her colleague how the wiretap was made, but Yelena recalled that in Kherson, a suspicious car with its headlights on was parked under the windows of the flat where she slept (and discussed the upcoming trip).