Putin cracks down on anti-war activists in desperate bid to suppress Russian rebellion | World | News
Putin cracks down on anti-war activists in desperate bid to suppress Russian rebellion | World | News
Russian authorities have issued more arrest warrants for exiled anti-war activists as its crackdown against dissent reaches unprecedented levels.
In the latest move, the Kremlin has issued a new wanted list in the Interior Ministry’s database of individuals wanted on criminal charges, according to independent Russian news outlet Mediazone.
Women’s rights and anti-war activist Darya Serenko is wanted alongisde prominent journalist and author Mikhail Zygar.
Both fled Russia after the nvasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The entries did not disclose the charges against the wanted persons or when they were added to the list.
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The Kremlin’s crackdown against opposition activists, independent journalists and government critics has intensified during the war.
Hundreds have faced persecution and reprisal over protests and remarks condemning the war in Ukraine, while thousands more have been fined, briefly jailed or even killed.
Serenko, a longtime political activist and poet, co-founded the Feminist Anti-War Resistance group, one of the largest movements opposing Russia‘s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Putin’s partial mobilization.
She fled to Georgia shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine. Serenko and her group were designated as “foreign agents » by Russia‘s Justice Ministry.
Serenko responded to the arrest warrant on her Instagram post, saying: « I’m hard to find, easy to lose and impossible to forget. »
Zygar, a journalist and founding editor-in-chief of Russia‘s independent news television channel Dozhd, also left Russia after the invasion and was declared a « foreign agent. »
Earlier this year, Zygar was accused of spreading « false information » about the army over an Instagram post about the mass murder of Ukranian civilians in Bucha, a town occupied by Russian forces in March 2022, according to an unconfirmed report on the Telegram channel SHOT.
Spreading false information about the army is a criminal offence punishable by up to 15 years in prison under a law Moscow adopted days after announcing what the Kremlin insists on calling a “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Cet article est apparu en premier sur https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1887539/putin-arrest-warrant-ukraine-war-critics-russia