Day Sixteen of Oleg Roldugin's detention at Moscow's Petrovka 38 closes Saturday with 15 days remaining to the May 10 remand hearing at which Tverskoy District Court will decide whether to extend his investigative custody. [1] Friday's paper read at Day Fifteen noted that no Western press-freedom organization had revisited the case since April 14. Saturday subtracts a day with no fresh Western artifact and no fresh Russian amendment.

The architecture remains as Friday described it. Roldugin, the Novaya Gazeta investigative columnist and Sobesednik co-founder, was detained April 9 during a 13-hour search of the newspaper's Potapovsky Lane newsroom. [2] He is held under Part 3 of Article 272.1 — illegal use of personal data committed by a group acting in prior conspiracy, punishable by up to six years. The case was opened March 10, four weeks before the raid. The state's evidentiary thread cites "contacts with Telegram bots"; investigators questioned Roldugin about a personal Telegram channel he ran. [3] Formal charges were filed April 14. He denies guilt.

The reporting the state appears to be pursuing covers Roldugin's investigations into Ramzan Kadyrov's circle, the creators of Russia's state messaging app Max, and Viktor Yanukovych's Sochi mansion — each relying on leaked material. Agentstvo's procedural reporting documented the statute's prior uses: only against database administrators and security personnel who leaked data themselves. [3] Roldugin is the first journalist. The legal theory under test — that reporting on leaked data is as culpable as leaking it — would convert the reporting act into the crime if upheld.

Day Sixteen is one less than Fifteen. The state's prosecutorial calendar advances on schedule; Western press-freedom organizations add no fresh statement; Russian-language independent outlets continue daily count. The press-freedom-wartime thread acquires one more day of Russian-state procedural advance against Western institutional silence. May 10 is 15 days out.

-- KATYA VOLKOV, Moscow