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Former head of investigations at Meduza, Alexey Kovalev, has been declared wanted; this was noticed by Mediazona when his profile appeared in the Interior Ministry’s database. The specific criminal charge for which the journalist is wanted remains unknown.
Kovalev headed Meduza’s investigations unit from 2019 to 2022. After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he left the country and began working with open data for the Clooney Foundation for Justice, which focuses on defending journalists and monitoring human rights violations. In 2025, Kovalev published an investigation into how, in occupied Mariupol, the homes of deceased or displaced residents are declared “ownerless” and subsequently handed over to the state or resold.
In December 2024, the Ministry of Justice added Kovalev to the register of “foreign agents.” In 2025 and 2026, he faced administrative charges for failure to comply with “foreign agent” requirements.