The Czech outlet Seznam Zprávy reported that Chashchukhin was detained by the foreign police, after which procedural actions were carried out with him. Police presidium spokesperson Ondřej Moravčík confirmed this and said: “We carried out procedural actions with the person in question. Unfortunately, it is not possible to inform third parties about their results”.
According to the outlet’s sources, cameraman Igor Dolmatov received the same order to leave the country. The expulsion was preceded by the questioning of both Russians, during which they said they worked for the Russian outlet Izvestia, which is under European Union sanctions.
The organizer of the filming, documentary filmmaker Boris Dvorkin, said that Chashchukhin was questioned for about nine hours. According to him, after that he was given a document ordering him to leave the Czech Republic, and he returned to Germany, where he is legally present and has held permanent residence for about ten years.
Dvorkin and Seznam Zprávy claim that Chashchukhin works from Germany for Russian media outlets under sanctions — Izvestia, Channel Five, and REN TV. Journalists also write that Chashchukhin and Dolmatov traveled to the meeting in Prague from Berlin, and during the conversation Chashchukhin admitted on hidden camera: “This is the ‘Rybar’ project. Maybe you know it. It’s ‘Rybar’”.
After journalists approached them and began asking questions, both Russians ran off in different directions. According to the outlet, Czech security services continue to investigate Chashchukhin’s activities and have already informed their German counterparts about them.
A representative of Germany’s General Customs Directorate, Andre Lenz, said that it is impossible to determine in advance whether a journalist’s work for a Russian media outlet under sanctions is a crime: it depends on the circumstances of the specific case and the applicable sanctions rules. The founder of “Rybar”, Mikhail Zvinchuk, is under EU sanctions; the sanctions rationale says that he is part of the working group created by Vladimir Putin to coordinate Russia’s mobilization efforts in support of the war against Ukraine.
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