Brest journalist Danil Palianski charged with high treason

Free­lance jour­nal­ist Danil Palian­s­ki is believed to have been detained on Sep­tem­ber 19 after his return from Rus­sia. This is the day when con­tact with him was lost.

Jour­nal­ist Danil Palian­s­ki. Cour­tesy pho­to

At the begin­ning of Sep­tem­ber, Danil Palian­s­ki trav­eled to Rus­sia to vis­it his rel­a­tives. Dur­ing his jour­ney, he encoun­tered an inci­dent with Russ­ian law enforce­ment offi­cers. His vehi­cle was stopped by FSB offi­cers, and he was sub­se­quent­ly charged with an admin­is­tra­tive infrac­tion for dis­obe­di­ence. The charge alleges that he refused to present an ID.

“Dani­il said that his pass­port was seized by a Russ­ian law enforce­ment offi­cer,” says one of Palianski’s acquain­tances. “Lat­er, when he returned to Brest, he was detained by KGB offi­cers.”

Ini­tial­ly, it was believed that he had been detained for an admin­is­tra­tive infrac­tion. How­ev­er, a few days lat­er, it came to light that the sit­u­a­tion involved a crim­i­nal case. Danil Palian­s­ki has been charged with high trea­son. He was remand­ed in cus­tody.

Danil Palian­s­ki is 53 years of age. He pre­vi­ous­ly held the posi­tion of video­g­ra­ph­er for state and pri­vate tele­vi­sion net­works, as well as for inde­pen­dent region­al online pub­li­ca­tions. In recent years, he has been rec­og­nized in Brest as a vol­un­teer with the Angel search and res­cue unit.