A Russian-Israeli blogger has been arrested in absentia for spreading fakes about the invincible Russian army.
The Meshchanskaya inter-district prosecutor’s office of Moscow has sent to the Meshchanskaya district court the materials of the criminal case against blogger Ilya Varlamov (declared a foreign agent in the Russian Federation). He was accused of evading the duties of a foreign agent, as well as spreading fakes about the Russian army. The defendant was arrested in absentia and put on an international wanted list. Under the article on foreign agents he faces up to two years in prison, under the article on military fakes – up to 10 years.
The press service of the agency said that the man was twice in a year imposed administrative fines for the absence of foreign agent markings in his publications. At the same time, he continued to publish content without indicating that it was created by a foreign agent. The blogger also posted a video that contained fakes about the actions of the Russian Armed Forces. The investigation believes that the reason for this was “a motive of political hatred”.
Ilya Varlamov was declared a foreign agent in March 2023. Then the blogger tried to challenge the status, but was unsuccessful. Since 2008, he has been running a YouTube channel with more than 5 million subscribers. In November 2024, the prosecutor’s office announced a criminal case against the blogger; initially, he was charged only with evading the duties of a foreign agent.