MOSCOW, May 26 (UPI) -- A Radio Liberty correspondent in Russia has accused a Russian security official of threatening him.
Yuri Bagrov said Tuesday that an agent of the Russian Federal Security Service, the FSB, prevented him from covering an opposition rally in North Ossetia on May 20 and then followed him to his office and threatened him, the U.S.-funded and Prague-based Radio Liberty reported.
Bagrov said he tried to contest the FSB agent's order, but that the agent "promised trouble" if he disobeyed. Bagrov said he recorded their conversation and told the agent that he would include it in a report for Radio Liberty.
The incident is the latest in a series of actions by the FSB and Russian police that have prevented Bagrov from reporting, Radio Liberty said. Bagrov and media rights groups have linked his troubles to critical reports he has written about Chechnya.
Bagrov was stripped off his passport and press credentials last year when a North Ossetian court convicted him on FSB-initiated charges of using falsified documents to obtain a Russian passport. Bagrov was born in Georgia but lives in Vladikavkaz.
