Novaya Gazeta journalist Oleg Roldugin remanded in custody over alleged misuse of personal data

A Moscow court has ordered the pre-trial detention of Oleg Roldugin, executive editor of Novaya Gazeta, in a case concerning the alleged illegal use and transfer of personal data, according to Mediazona.

Oleg Roldugin was detained on 9 April following a thirteen-hour search of Novaya Gazeta’s editorial offices. The Tverskoy District Court of Moscow subsequently remanded him in custody on charges relating to the illegal handling of personal data by a group.

Moscow police said the case concerns the alleged acquisition of Russians’ personal data for use in journalistic publications. In a statement, investigators claimed that ‘information resources containing personal data are used in the preparation of informational articles and materials of a negative nature about Russian citizens’, adding that searches for such data were carried out on private databases in 2025–2026 and later used in the subsequent publication of articles on Telegram channels.

The investigation follows Oleg Roldugin’s 2026 exposé into how Ruslan Aisultanov, a former aide to a nephew of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, acquired an exceptionally expensive penthouse in central Moscow.