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Two popular independent news outlets in Russia were deemed "foreign agents" by authorities, causing one of them to shut down, the Associated Press reported.
Russia puts the "foreign agents" label on groups, news outlets or individuals that receive foreign funding. The designation implies additional government scrutiny.
VTimes was forced to shut down this month, while Meduza launched a crowd-funding campaign.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.
Russian authorities on Tuesday morning raided the apartments of several investigative journalists and their family members, a move that comes amid mounting pressure on Russia's independent media outlets.
Police searched the apartments of Roman Badanin, chief editor of the Proekt investigative online outlet, and Maria Zholobova, one of its journalists. Officers also raided the home of the parents of Badanin's deputy, Mikhail Rubin. Rubin was detained near Zholobova's residential building and brought to his parents' apartment.
Proekt said in its account in the Telegram messaging app that the raids occurred after the outlet promised to release an investigation into Russia's interior minister, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, and his alleged wealth. The outlet published the story shortly after the searches started.
Proekt later said that at least two out of three raids were connected to a defamation case over a 2017 documentary Badanin and Zholobova worked on, about a St. Petersburg businessman with alleged ties to organized crime.
Badanin was a suspect in the case, his lawyer Anna Bogatyryova told Russia's independent TV channel Dozhd, and Zholobova reportedly had the status of a witness. It wasn't immediately clear, however, why Badanin's deputy, Rubin, was targeted by the police.
Russia has used the law to levy heavy fines on U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty for failing to identify its material as produced by "foreign agents." The broadcaster has asked the European Court of Human Rights to intercede.
Earlier this year Russian authorities raided the apartment of a prominent investigative journalist, Roman Anin, and arrested four editors of an opposition-leaning student magazine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday rejected the idea that raids targeting investigative journalists could be viewed as retribution for their work, saying that "legal grounds for such actions exist." Peskov admitted, however, that the Kremlin doesn't know why police searched the apartments of Proekt journalists.
