Aksana Panova is a Russian journalist, most known for leading the news sites Ura.ru and Znak.com [ru].
[4][5] In July 2013, she pleaded guilty to tax evasion, stating that she had withdrawn $400 000 from Ura.ru's bank accounts and transferred them to accounts set up for non-existent companies with the goal of paying staff salaries without having to pay welfare taxes.
[7] In 2014, the court found her guilty of extortion, handing down a two-year suspended sentence, including a 400 000 rubles fine and being banned from conducting journalism for two years.
[8] The trial was met with widespread controversy among journalists and human rights groups, with several saying that it represented a crackdown on investigative journalism in Russia.
[12][13] Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Znak.com announced that it would be suspending its operations "due to a large number of restrictions that have recently been imposed on the work of media outlets in Russia.