At its last meeting in June 2026, the Board of the Baltic Centre for Investigative Journalism Re:Baltica discussed the recurring attacks against the organisation on social media concerning Re:Baltica’s past collaboration with Leonid Ragozin.
In view of foreign minister’s decision to include him in the list of “persona non grata” and wishing to make its position clear, the Board states that Re:Baltica collaborated with Mr. Ragozin as a freelancer on several investigations after he moved from Moscow to Latvia following Russia’s annexation of Crimea. At the time, this cooperation was based on his professional record and previous work with respected Western media organisations. Re:Baltica has regularly collaborated with exiled journalists from Russia and Belarus.
Developments since these stories were published and the fundamentally altered context after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine do not change the facts, which at that time were reported and published in accordance with good journalistic practice. However, Re:Baltica had not worked with Mr. Ragozin since 2019 and will not do so in the future.
Re:Baltica considers many of his public statements on social media unacceptable and condemnable.
Re:Baltica will not comment further on this matter beyond this statement.