Following a March 10, 2014, Lenta.ru interview by Ilya Azar [ru; uk][a] of Andriy Tarasenko [uk] from the Right Sector's Kyiv branch,[4] Roskomnadzor immediately issued a press release on March 12, 2014,[5] in which Lenta.ru was implicated in violating numerous Russian media laws, information laws, and laws to counter extremism because the interview allowed a leader from the informal group to appeal to persons in the nation of Ukraine (Ukrainians, Crimean Tartars, and others) to support causes for the inviolable territory of Ukraine which has always included Crimea and that the article contained a link to Dmytro Yarosh's March 1, 2014, appeal to fight Moscow's imperialism.[4][6][7][8][9][c] Since the warning by Roskomnadzor was the second issued in a 12-month period, Roskomnadzor would ask the courts to terminate Lenta.ru's mass media license.[5][8]
On March 12, 2014 the owner, Alexander Mamut, fired the Editor-in-Chief Galina Timchenko and replaced her with Alexey Goreslavsky. 39 employees out of the total 84, including Director-general Yuliya Minder, lost their jobs. This includes 32 writing journalists, all photo-editors (5 people) and 6 administrators.[10][11] The employees of Lenta.ru issued a statement that the purpose of the move was to install a new Editor-in-Chief directly controlled by the Kremlin and turn the website into a propaganda tool.[12] Dunja Mijatović, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, referred to the move as a manifestation of censorship