After the first of Masyuk's reports showing the violence in Chechnya, Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets attempted to revoke NTV's license to broadcast in retaliation. Masyuk was threatened directly with prosecution following an interview in the Nozhnay-Yurtovsky Rayon with Chechen field commander Shamil Basayev immediately after the Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis, in which Basayev succeeded in taking over 1,000 civilian hostages. Beginning on 13 July 1995, the attorney general's office of Russia formally investigated Masyuk under Article 189 of the Criminal Code (harboring a criminal) and Article 190 (failure to report a crime), but the case was dropped in August 1995 after the acting attorney general of Russia was forced to resign on 8 October 1995 for unrelated corruption charges.