This statement was made by the Pravda.ru edition. According to the portal's authors, during the Voice of America stream (included in the list of foreign agents in Russia), Dobrokhotov announced the details of the inner workings of his publication, including details of working with personal data and “breakthroughs” in the framework of journalistic investigations.

Russian law considers the collection and dissemination of personal information about a person without his consent a criminal offense, regulated by Article 137 ("Violation of privacy"). Responsibility for this crime is up to two years in prison. And given the position of Dobrokhotov, this term can be increased to four years, since the details of his private life were distributed to him using his official position.

"Ridus" found out from experts whether Dobrokhotov faces criminal liability.

Allegation of work in favor of foreigners

Roman Dobrokhotov confirmed the fact of collecting and disseminating personal information in an interview for "Editors" on YouTube: he told in detail about the use of services to "break through" private information.

When we break through all these people, we naturally look at all their relatives, they pop up in the bases.
In the same interview, the editor-in-chief of The Insider acknowledges the receipt of foreign investment for investigative activities.

The Insider has collaborated on some investigative projects with organizations such as OSSRP, which provide grants for investigations. But The Insider is a Latvian organization, so we are outside the Russian legal framework and are not obliged to account for such grants.

According to the authors of Pravda.ru, most of Dobrokhotov's media projects (primarily registered in Latvia, but not recognized as a foreign agent, The Insider) of Dobrokhotov were financed by Western grants. “For example, in 2019, Dobrokhotov received 10,000 euros from the Czech Media Development Investment Fund (an organization recognized as undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation) for the investigation into allegedly 'exposing' the suspects in the Skripal case through a seal - the European Press Prize, established by this foundation”, the newspaper writes.

Several articles of the Criminal Code are on the horizon

Lawyer and public figure Dmitry Agranovsky, who has repeatedly advocated the liberalization of the criminal legislation of the Russian Federation, in an interview with ridus.ru noted that Dobrokhotov's public statement about the methods of his work "is quite worth checking."

If, say, my data or the data of my relatives were disclosed, I would write a statement. But I do not undertake to predict in advance whether a case will be initiated: despite the fact that we have been living in the information age for many years, judicial practice is still very diverse.

According to Agranovsky, journalists "from any point of view should not get into private personal data."

Still, real investigations are the lot of operatives who are guided by the law on operational-search activities and are endowed with special powers. And journalists shouldn't be doing this. They can write articles called investigations in the common sense of the word. And only law enforcement agencies have the right to carry out real investigations. These investigations are connected with infiltration of privacy, which is protected by the Constitution. Naturally, only specially authorized bodies can enter there and within the framework of relevant cases. This is all not easy either: even operatives do not have the right to just collect information about a citizen, they need to start a special case, and so on.

“Therefore, I think that in such cases, a journalist should be hit on the hands: this is not freedom of speech, not freedom to collect information, but simply penetration into private life,” Agranovsky said. "Whether it is legal or not, will be decided by law enforcement agencies."

“Everyone should do his own thing: journalists - to inform the society, law enforcement officers - to investigate crimes, and not vice versa,” the lawyer concluded.

However, not all representatives of the professional community are inclined to share this opinion. Lawyer Ilya Remeslo, in an interview with ridus.ru, expressed considerations that "Violation of privacy" is "the softest article of those that Mr. Dobrokhotov deserves."

In my opinion, he cooperates with representatives of foreign intelligence services and acts in the interests of various Western foundations. With his investigations, funny situations often come out: he dashed off a whole article about the fact that allegedly [one of the founders of the NEXTA Telegram channel recognized as extremist in Belarus Roman] Protasevich did not serve in Azov, and when the opposite was confirmed, he did not explain himself to its audience, which has a memory like a fish, so you can not explain anything to it. That is, a person always takes this position: he supports the enemies of the Russian Federation.

“He should be prosecuted for violation of privacy, illegal use of databases and use of confidential information. But besides this, Dobrokhotov needs to be checked for the composition of treason. Judging by his activities, it is clear that it would be worth checking, ”the lawyer concluded.

High treason, according to article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, is punishable by imprisonment for a term of twelve to twenty years with an impressive fine in addition.

Also, it is worth recalling that in January of this year, Stalin's lawyer Gurevich initiated the initiation of a criminal case against Dobrokhotov under Art. 128.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("libel"). In her opinion, Dobrokhotov and his publication, manipulating fake information, accused Russia of falsifying an investigation into the crash of a Malaysian Boeing over Donbas.

Source>Ridus.ru