Irina Slavina (journalist)

On 2 October 2020, she died through self-immolation in front of the building of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast (opposite the Gorkovskaya metro station).

According to MBH Media, in June 2020, a protocol on fake news was drawn up against Slavina (part 9, article 13.15 of the Administrative Code) because of the material that one of the heads of the Sambo Academy in the town of Kstovo contracted the SARS-CoV-2 and returning from Europe, he contacted dozens of people, including visitors to the academy. The law enforcers considered that Slavina spread deliberately false information under the guise of reliable.

In July 2020, Slavina was fined for posting information about the Free People forum.

On 2 October 2020, at 15:30 (UTC +3), Slavina died through self-immolation in front of the building of the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast Police. In her last post on Facebook, Slavina asked "the Russian Federation to be blamed for her death".

According to Current Time TV, in March 2019, a court in Nizhny Novgorod fined Slavina 20 thousand rubles, finding her guilty of organizing an uncoordinated march in memory of Boris Nemtsov. In the fall of 2019, the court of Nizhny Novgorod fined Slavina 70 thousand rubles under the article on disrespect for the authorities and society (part 3 of article 20.1 of the Administrative Code). According to a statement from representatives of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, a case was opened against Slavina for the post to the Investigative Committee of Russia: "After Stalin's face was hung on the house in Nizhny Novgorod, it is proposed to rename the settlement to Shakhuynya". The head of the Agora human rights group, Pavel Chikov, draws attention to the fact that Slavina was fined the largest possible under the article on disrespect for the authorities. Colleagues and acquaintances of the journalist suggest that this was done in order to close down the publication that occupies an opposition position.

In August 2019, a memorial plaque in memory of Joseph Stalin was installed in Shakhunya – to the 140th anniversary of his birth. Slavina, in her post on Facebook, suggested renaming Shakhunya, changing the last few letters in the name of the settlement, so that the result was an obscene word. In October 2019, the Centre E of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia opened an administrative case of disrespect for the authorities and society (part 3 of Article 20.1 of the Administrative Code) against Slavina (Murakhtaeva), editor-in-chief of the Koza Press online publication. In June 2020, an administrative protocol was drawn up against Slavina on the dissemination of deliberately false information (part 9 of article 13.15 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation) for posting information about COVID-19.

In June 2016, together with Askhat Kayumov and Andrei Khomov, Slavina headed the list of the Yabloko party in the elections to the Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.

In 2016, as a candidate from the Yabloko party, she took part in the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation in the Prioksky single-mandate district of the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast and took 8th place out of 10, gaining 3,468 votes or 1.28%.

In 2015, she founded and headed, as editor-in-chief, the independent online newspaper “Koza Press”, covering the social and political events and problems of the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.

From 2003 to 2011 she was a journalist in Nizhegorodskaya Pravda, the official newspaper of the Government of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.

She graduated from Nizhny Novgorod State Pedagogical University in 1997. From 1995 to 2003, she worked as a teacher of Russian language and Russian Literature at the schools of Nizhny Novgorod. Also, she studied journalism from the University of the Russian Academy of Education (URAO), and from 2003 she became a journalist.

Irina Vyacheslavovna Murakhtaeva (Russian: Ирина Вячеславовна Мурахтаева; née Kolebanova; 8 January 1973 – 2 October 2020), known professionally as Irina Slavina, was a Russian journalist from Nizhny Novgorod city, public and political figure, and editor-in-chief of the Koza Press.

Irina Vyacheslavovna Kolebanova was born in Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod), USSR on 8 January 1973.