Moscow Court Upholds $333,000 Fine For Magazine Over Late Disclosure Of Foreign Financing

Moscow's Tverskoy District Court on Tuesday reaffirmed its decision to fine Russian magazine The New Times 22 million rubles (over $333,000) over its failure to report to authorities in a timely manner about the funds it received from foreign donors, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the court room.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th November, 2018) Moscow's Tverskoy District Court on Tuesday reaffirmed its decision to fine Russian magazine The New Times 22 million rubles (over $333,000) over its failure to report to authorities in a timely manner about the funds it received from foreign donors, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the court room.

Earlier in the day, the court upheld its earlier ruling to fine the media outlet's editor-in-chief, Yevgenia Albats, 30,000 rubles.

"To leave the ruling of the magistrate unchanged and to not satisfy the appeal," the judge said.

Earlier in November, Albats said that the magazine had collected over 25.4 million rubles to pay the fine via a crowdfunding campaign.

On October 25, a Moscow court fined The New Times and its chief editor 22 million rubles because of its failure to timely inform Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor the money it received from foreign sources.

On October 29, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said then that it would be more bad than good if the magazine closed, but the decision to impose a fine was made in strict accordance with the law. The Russian Union of Journalist noted that this was the largest fine for the media in Russian history, stressing that its size was the cause of bewilderment and promising to closely monitor the situation.