Statement of the Editor-in-Chief of the International Scientific and Practical Law Journal «Eurasian Advocacy» in Connection With an Attempt to Interfere in the Activities of the Publication and Pressure on the Freedom of Professional Discussion and Scien

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Statement of the Editor-in-Chief of the International Scientific and Practical Law Journal «Eurasian Advocacy» in Connection With an Attempt to Interfere in the Activities of the Publication and Pressure on the Freedom of Professional Discussion and Scientific Research

Dear authors, readers, representatives of the scientific, journalistic, and legal communities!

As the Editor-in-Chief of a mass media outlet, a printed periodical – the international scientific and practical law journal «Eurasian Advocacy» – I consider it necessary to report on a letter received by the editorial office, the author of which demanded to delete an issue of the journal and change the subject matter of future publications, making his appeal to the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation conditional upon the fulfillment of these demands.

On September 26, 2026, at 07:19 (according to the mail service), from the email address « Этот адрес электронной почты защищен от спам-ботов. У вас должен быть включен JavaScript для просмотра. » to the email address of the editorial office « Этот адрес электронной почты защищен от спам-ботов. У вас должен быть включен JavaScript для просмотра. », an email addressed to me as the Editor-in-Chief of the journal was received, containing threats and demands from a person acting under the name «Anna Vasilievna Korobkova».

The author of the letter, in a categorical form, attempts to dictate the editorial policy and demands from me, within five days from the date of sending the appeal, to delete from the journal's website its latest issue No. 3 (80) for 2026[1], in which, authored by me, were published, in particular, an interview with Bertrand Favreau, a well-known French lawyer who founded the Ludovic Trarieux International Human Rights Prize, and the material «The Bar in the Russian Federation: Chronicle of Crisis (August 2025 – May 2026): Scientific and Practical Report».

The author of the letter, stating that the journal published a «statement by a French advocate, who has long lost touch with reality, against the Russian authorities», also demands not to publish «statements with persons who have spoken out against the special military operation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine» and «my reviews on the alleged violations of the rights of lawyers in Russia». Meanwhile, the interview does not contain «statements against the Russian authorities», nor against the «special military operation», and the assertions of the author of the letter are the far-fetched fruits of his subjective perception of the text.

The text is devoted to the history and problems of the legal profession, the protection of the rights of lawyers, and international standards of their activities. The assessments contained therein concern the situation of advocates in different countries. The study on violations of the rights of lawyers in Russia is a monitoring review of open sources of information with episode-by-episode references that allow establishing the conformity of the cited facts with reality. The author of the letter did not name a specific statement and norm of the law, which, in his opinion, would oblige the editorial board to delete the entire issue and refuse publications on the topics indicated by him.

The author of the letter, making the submission of materials to the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation for the purpose of initiating the procedure for recognizing the journal and me personally as «foreign agents» conditional upon the fulfillment of his demands to delete the issue of the journal and refuse future publications, states that this status is an «excellent punishment mechanism for the mass media», and also claims that following his «denunciations», the scientists and journalists mentioned by him were recognized as foreign agents.

Thus, the author of the letter is trying to use existing legal mechanisms as a weapon of blackmail and an instrument of pressure on the mass media editorial board in his own interests.

At present, the identity of the sender of the letter has not been reliably established; however, it is known that in 2024 independent researchers linked the pseudonym «Anna Vasilievna Korobkova» with a specific person, information about whom can be easily found using search engines on the Internet.

In connection with the above, I consider it necessary to state the following.

1. Paragraph 2 of Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides that everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.

Part 1 of Article 44 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation guarantees freedom of scientific creativity. Part 3 of Article 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation establishes that no one may be forced to express their opinions or to refuse them. Parts 4 and 5 of Article 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and Article 1 of the Law of the Russian Federation «On Mass Media» (hereinafter referred to as the Law) guarantee the freedom of mass media, while Article 19 of the specified Law establishes rules on the independence of the mass media editorial board. Article 25 of the Law establishes that hindering the legally carried out distribution of mass media products on the part of citizens, associations of citizens, officials, enterprises, institutions, organizations, state bodies — is not allowed.

My direct professional duty as the Editor-in-Chief of a mass media outlet is to ensure the publication of the journal, to form its content based on the principles of freedom of mass information, and to protect the editorial board from any illegal interference, diktat, and censorship. The ultimatum I received demanding to delete the published issue of the journal is unprecedented pressure on me specifically as a mass media head and journalist. At the same time, according to Articles 2 and 18 of the Law, the editorial board acts on the basis of professional independence, and no one, not even the founder, has the right to indicate to the Editor-in-Chief of the mass media what materials he must delete from public access.

The use of the threat of denunciation as a lever to force the editorial board into self-censorship, the demand to delete the published issue from the publication's website, and to ban the coverage of certain topics encroaches upon guaranteed rights and freedoms and is directed against the professional independence of the researcher, the journalist, and the editorial board, which, proceeding from the provisions of Article 58 of the Law, entails responsibility.

The demand to censor professional discussion and not to publish the results of research on urgent problems of the legal profession not only infringes on the rights of journalists and the mass media, but in this case also encroaches on the independence of researchers and the independence of the lawyer, since paragraph 23 of the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers provides that advocates, like other lawyers and citizens, have the right to freedom of expression, belief, and the right to take part in public discussion of matters concerning the law, the administration of justice, and the promotion and protection of human rights.

2. The journal complies with all the requirements of Russian legislation provided for the publication of materials in the mass media. The content of the materials published in the journal is of a scientific nature, which, by virtue of Part 4 of Article 4 of the Federal Law «On Control over the Activities of Persons under Foreign Influence», is not recognized as political activity.

3. I consider the form of influencing editorial decisions chosen by the author of the letter to be completely unacceptable. The publication of an interview with a foreign lawyer, as well as the publication of scientific reports based on concrete facts, is a common practice for an international scientific and practical publication.

The editorial board will continue to independently determine the content of the journal, verify information published as factual, and provide a platform for professional discussion about the legal profession. The assessment of an interview or scientific report by the author of the letter is not a ground for removing materials from public access.

4. An appeal by a citizen to a state body and the communication of such an intention to appeal are legitimate in themselves. However, the condition set in the letter — the refusal to appeal in exchange for the deletion of the issue and the cessation of publications — requires verification for the possible coercion of a journalist to refuse to disseminate information under Part 1 of Article 144 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The final assessment depends, in particular, on establishing the sender, the circumstances of sending the letter, and his intentions. At the same time, it is obvious that a person truly convinced of a violation of the law does not refuse to report in exchange for submission, and the conditionality itself betrays the instrumental nature of the appeal.

In this regard, I have filed a statement on the violation of human and civil rights and freedoms with the prosecutor's office in accordance with Articles 10 and 27 of the Federal Law «On the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation».

In my statement, I request to establish the sender of the letter, to verify the circumstances of its sending, and to give a legal assessment of the conditional demand contained therein. If there are grounds provided for by law, I ask to transfer the materials to the competent authority to resolve the issue in the manner prescribed by law.

5. The attempt by an unknown person to condition the refusal to send a denunciation to state bodies upon the immediate deletion of the materials of an officially registered mass media outlet is undisguised blackmail. Such an ultimatum demonstrates that the planned appeal to the Ministry of Justice of Russia is not a manifestation of a civic stance or concern for the observance of the law, but an instrument for blocking the legal dissemination of information. Coercion to delete the products of a registered mass media outlet under the threat of applying sanction statuses constitutes a direct illegal encroachment on the freedom of mass information and the independence of professional discussion guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

6. In essence, the editorial board of the journal has encountered an example of actions to abuse the state system for the purpose of intimidation, violation of the rights of mass media and the rights of citizens to receive information, which creates a substantial, comprehensive, and ever-growing threat to the right to freedom of expression, perverting the principles of the rule of law as a whole, which, in general, is analogous in properties to the so-called SLAPP lawsuits. In this case, we are faced with a Russian modification of this negative phenomenon — strategic denunciations directed against the mass media, public participation, academic freedom, and professional discussion. The use of mechanisms for appealing to state bodies as an instrument of serial blackmail and suppression of professional discussion requires an appropriate comprehensive response.

7. In connection with the highly probable presence in the actions of the author of the letter of signs of a systematic campaign of mass intimidation and denunciation, I call upon the journalistic, academic, and legal communities to solidarity and joint actions.

I propose to disseminate information about what has happened, to record such letters, not to comply with illegal demands, to use the methods provided by law to protect one's rights, and to take other actions aimed at preventing the unlawful suppression of freedom of speech and mass information, as well as the freedom of scientific research and professional discussion.

Connivance with serial denunciation endangers the freedom of the mass media, the freedom of dissemination of information, freedom of speech and scientific research, the freedom of professional discussion, as well as the very possibility of carrying out professional activities in the fields of science, journalism, and law.

September 30, 2026

For the Reference:

The international scientific and practical legal journal «Eurasian Advocacy»[2] is a mass media outlet, a printed periodical, which constitutes an international information and analytical platform opened in 2012 for the exchange of opinions on the issues of the organization and activity of the advocacy and urgent problems of legal science and practice in the Eurasian legal space. 

The founder and publisher of the journal is the autonomous non-profit organization «Eurasian Scientific Research Institute of Problems of Law»[3].

The journal is a mass media outlet registered in the Russian Federation (PI No. FS77-50845 dated August 14, 2012), it has been assigned an ISSN (2304-9839), a subscription index in the United Catalog «Press of Russia» (41210), is published in printed form once every two months, is placed in full-text format in permanent free access based on the principles of Open Access on the «Internet» network, is sent to libraries, is represented in Russian and international databases, is indexed in the Russian Science Citation Index, and scientific articles are assigned DOI identifiers.

Since 2015, the journal has been included in the List of the Higher Attestation Commission under the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, and it publishes the main results of scientific research necessary for the defense of dissertations, as well as interviews, news, information messages, and materials covering the practice of advocates.

The Editorial Board of the journal includes more than thirty leading legal scholars.