Media investigation poses risk to owner of popular "Stalingulag" Telegram channel

Alexander Gorbunov, a native of Makhachkala, mentioned by the RBC as an author of the "Stalingulag" channel in Telegram, may be subjected to persecution, believes Alexander Verkhovsky, the director of the centre "Sova", and Andrei Soldatov, the editor-in-chief of the "Agentura.ru". Authors of other anonymous Telegram channels also pointed to the risks of de-anonymization for the blogger and criticized the RBC.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that journalists stated Alexander Gorbunov, a 26-year-old native of Makhachkala, was an author of the "Stalingulag", the most popular political Telegram channel in Russia. The very "Stalingulag" channel mocked the journalists' conclusions about the authorship of the Telegram channel.

The answer to the question about the ethics concerning the de-anonymization of the author of the Telegram channel depends on the compliance of its content with the law, noted Alexander Verkhovsky, the director of the information-analytical centre "Sova".

He has noted that the mockery of the blogger popular in Russia can provoke resentment of the Kremlin. The author of the Telegram channel can be subjected to repression, even if the content is legal, since "laws in Russia are interpreted fairly freely," the analyst said.
Alexander Verkhovsky sees nothing remarkable in the fact that the author of the Telegram channel may be a native of Dagestan. "In Dagestan, the level of freedom of speech is slightly higher than the average for Russia," the analyst explained.

Regardless of the consequences for the de-anonymization of the Telegram channel author, the person was exposed to risk, believes Andrei Soldatov, the editor-in-chief of the website "Agentura.ru".

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 14, 2018 at 02:39 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.