Die if you go to Gothenburg

GOTHENBURG. The Russian journalists were threatened with death on their way to Gothenburg.

The trip was canceled when both the hotel booking and the seat on the flight were leaked.

Now the Russian security service is singled out.

– Crazy, dangerous people know how to find me, says Alesja Marochovskaja to Aftonbladet.

Over 2,000 journalists from all over the world have made their way to Gothenburg for the international conference on investigative journalism.

But two names were missing from the list of participants, Chairman David E Kaplan announced in his welcome speech.

– Two journalists couldn’t get here today, they were told they would die if they traveled to Gothenburg.

Details of the dog

Irina Dolinina and Alesja Marochovskaja, who are reporters on the Russian independent news site Stories, have been receiving email threats for several months from the Russian signature “Yevgenij P”.

For Alesja, it has been about eerie details regarding her private life – and the special sounds her dog makes when they are out for a walk.

– First they wrote that they knew where I live and that was worrying because that is not information you can find in open sources. Then I moved a few months later, then I received another email saying that they would find me wherever I lived, she says and continues:

– They also had details about the strange noises my dog, who has breathing problems, makes when we are out walking. I don’t know if they followed us.

“Don’t go to Gothenburg”

Five days before the digging conference in Gothenburg, the tone was turned up even further and in the new emails the two reporters were asked not to travel to Sweden.

– It said: “You know who this is from.” Don’t go to Gothenburg, we know how to find you”. There was information about which hotel I stayed at and details such as which number I had on the seat on the flight, she says and continues:

– It is information that has been retrieved at such a high level. A person we work with who worked in the intelligence service for 15 years says that most things point to Russia. They have access to flight information in Europe, it is communicated between countries. It is possible to set notifications so you can see when someone books a trip.

“Crazy, dangerous people”

Irina Dolinina and Alesja Marochovskaya then decided it was best to cancel the trip.

– There is always one percent that is something more than a threat. If they wanted to harm, kill or poison us, they would not have sent a message. We think it’s a psychological threat. But it was better to stay at home than to put ourselves and everyone around us in danger, says Alesja.

How are you now?

– Not good. It’s hard because you don’t feel safe. Crazy, dangerous people know how to find me. They have the upper hand. But we are trying to stay safe and keep working. I think the biggest reason is that they want to prevent us from working in and reporting on Ukraine.

“Is shocking”

Istori’s founder and editor-in-chief, Roman Anin, who had to travel to Gothenburg on his own, says that the threats have been coming in for a long time, but that it was only now that they were told about them publicly.

– We have treated it as part of the job, especially in connection with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it felt inappropriate to talk about threats as journalists in Ukraine have it much worse. But now we felt we wanted to warn other journalists and activists who are enemies of Putin’s regime. That the Russian security service has access to flight information within the EU is a very big risk for Putin’s enemies, he says and continues:

– It is the level of information gathering that is so shocking. Where can you find data about which seat someone is sitting in on the plane?

Do you know why they were subjected to these threats?

– Because they do a good job. They review the Russian army in Ukraine, make films that are popular in Russia, that can change the country. That’s great journalism.