Russian journalist sets herself on fire, blames government for her death

A Russian news editor set herself on fire in front of the interior ministry office in Nizhniy Novgorod blaming the Russian Federation for her death in an earlier post she made on Facebook. Irina Slavina, 47, is the editor-in-chief of the independent news site Koza Press News. Investigators confirmed her death on Friday, when her body was found with severe burns on a bench in Gorky Street.

Footage of Slavina's last moments had emerged as she set herself on fire in a video where she is seen repeatedly pushing back a man who is trying to extinguish the flames with his coat until she eventually falls to the ground.

A day before her death, Slavina had posted on her Facebook that around 12 police officers searched and raided her flat - seizing her notebooks, all laptops, electronic gadgets and mobile phones that belonged to her as well as those that belonged to her husband and her daughter. According to Slavina, authorities were looking for brochures, leaflets and accounts linked to pro-democracy group Open Russia, which is financed by Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

She is one of seven people whose homes were searched as part of the inquiry. However, the Russian investigative committee refused to connect her death to the raids claiming she was only a witness and neither a suspect, nor accused.

In an article on the BBC, Slavina is reported to have had quite a number of rows with authorities.

"I know she was harassed, detained, fined all the time. She was a very active woman," said Natalia Gryaznevich, an aide to the exiled founder of Open Russia.

Opposition politician Dmitry Gudkov wrote on his Instagram, "Over the past years security officials have subjected her to endless persecution because of her opposition (activities)."

The said search that was conducted is part of a criminal case against Mikhail Ioselevich, an entrepreneur suspected of working with the opposition group. Opposition members said the editor-in-chief of the independent news site was constantly under pressure from authorities as the government has been clamping down on independent media and journalists throughout the Russian regions.

Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is currently recovering in Berlin after being poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent described Slavina's death as "terrible."

"They absolutely drove her to suicide," Navalny said.