A Moscow court has issued an arrest warrant for a YouTuber and opposition activist as part of the Kremlin’s latest attempts to silence critics of its invasion of Ukraine.
The Basmanny court in Moscow ordered the arrest of Maxim Katz, an anti-Putin activist and blogger who has left Russia. He is accused of being a “foreign agent” who spread false information about the Russian military, a charge that could carry a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
Katz was first placed on Russia’s wanted list on September 29, but only became aware of the criminal proceedings against him several months later.
“It was funny how I found out,” he said. “I asked for an official statement that I had no criminal record, but it turned out that I did.”
Days after Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine in February last year, Russian lawmakers passed legislation banning disparagement of the Russian military or the spread of “false information” about what the Kremlin calls “the special military operation” in Ukraine.
Courts across the country have increasingly handed out prison sentences to critics of Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.
They included a prominent opposition politician, Ilya Yashin, who was sentenced to 8 years in prison on charges of discrediting the military, and another top opposition figure, Vladimir Kara-Murza, who has been imprisoned on the same charges and is now is being tried.
Authorities have used the label to put pressure on independent media outlets and non-governmental organizations.
On Thursday, the Justice Department expanded its list of “foreign agents” to include prominent human rights lawyer Pavel Chikov and popular blogger Ilya Varlamov. Both were critical of Russia’s operation in Ukraine.
Putin’s most prominent critic, opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2021 after being convicted of embezzlement – allegations Mr Navalny claimed to be fabricated.
Earlier this year, More than 200 medics signed a petition saying they are ‘deeply concerned’ for Mr Navalny’s life and cannot stand aside and watch him deteriorate.
The opposition leader recently claimed he had been placed in solitary confinement for the tenth time in a year for washing his face half an hour before prison schedules allowed it.
He also fell ill after sharing a cell with someone who was “deliberately placed in the prison’s medical ward full of flu patients,” his lawyers say.
After his conviction, it was revealed that he had been sent to a maximum security ‘torture prison’known for brutally beating and raping male prisoners.
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