MOSCOW | A Moscow court on Tuesday ordered the detention in absentia of two Russian bloggers, accused of discrediting the Russian army and its offensive in Ukraine.
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Michael Nacke, who hosts a YouTube video blog outside Russia with more than 700,000 subscribers, is accused of spreading false information about the Russian armed forces, according to the Basmannyi court in Moscow, which ordered his detention, according to his site.
Veronika Belotserkovskaïa, blogger and author of several cookbooks who lives in France, is accused of the same crime. The court also ordered his detention in absentia, according to the Tass news agency. He is accused of having expressed himself on the offensive on his Instagram account.
Spreading false information about the Russian armed forces is punishable by a heavy prison sentence and was defined in Russian law right after Vladimir Putin ordered the offensive against Ukraine on February 24.
In particular, it is forbidden to use the terms war or invasion in relation to the Russian offensive, or to accuse the army of war crimes.
Many critics of the regime, but also simple Internet users critical of this offensive, are the subject of prosecutions of this type or have been imprisoned, such as the opponent Vladimir Kara-Mourza or the artist Alexandra Skotchilenko.
“I take this arrest in absentia, and the case in general, as a signal that the Kremlin sees risks in the information that we are trying to disseminate among Russian-speaking citizens,” reacted to AFP Michael Nacke.
“It means what we are doing is right and the authorities take it as a threat,” he added. “That’s why we will continue, because there is nothing more important now than to stop this war.”
