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The Moscow Prosecutor’s Office has approved the indictment in the case against blogger Ilya Varlamov. He will be tried in absentia under charges for spreading “fake news” about the Russian Armed Forces motivated by political hatred (para. “d” part 2 Art. 207.3 of the Criminal Code) and for failing to fulfil the obligations of a “foreign agent” (part 2 Art. 330.1 of the Criminal Code). This was reported on the prosecutor’s Telegram channel, as noted by Mediazona.

The case regarding the evasion of “foreign agent” obligations came to light back in November last year. According to the prosecutor’s office, Varlamov was twice held administratively liable under a similar article (part 4 Art. 19.34 of the Code of Administrative Offences) for posts without the “foreign agent” label during the year.

“I do not repent for what I have done, and I am not going to slap a damn label on (the label that says I am a foreign agent). I believe the foreign agent law is unconstitutional; its sole purpose is political repression and censorship,” Varlamov commented on the opening of the case.

Judging by the prosecutor’s statement, the blogger was accused of spreading “fake news” because of a video on YouTube. According to the authorities, while outside Russia, Varlamov “publicly disseminated on a widely accessible video hosting platform obviously false information disguised as credible reports” about the Russian army.

The prosecutor’s office has sent the criminal case to Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court. The blogger has been placed in pre-trial detention in absentia.

24 July The charge under the “fake news” article about the Russian army is linked to Ilya Varlamov’s statements regarding the shelling of residential buildings in Kryvyi Rih and Odesa, reports SOTAvision, citing materials announced at Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court.

The matter concerns a video Varlamov released in November 2023: “Sanctions failed: fridges, the shadow front and Russia’s other tricks. China, the USA, and Putin.”

According to the prosecutor’s office, the “fakes” about the Russian army appear in the following statement by the blogger:

“It was after the bombings of Kryvyi Rih and Odesa that people in the West began openly talking about how Russians are successfully circumventing sanctions. On 13 June 2023, when a Russian missile hit a residential building, 13 people were killed and 36 more were wounded; the next day, there was another missile strike, this time on Odesa. There were no fatalities that time, but schools, residential complexes, and shops in the city centre were seriously damaged.”

  • The Ministry of Justice included Varlamov in the register of “foreign agents” on 23 March 2023. The decision was justified by the claim that he was spreading “false information about decisions taken by public authorities and the policies they pursue.”
  • In February this year, after fines totalling 110,000 rubles (US$1,200) for not labelling as a “foreign agent,” a court frozen Varlamov’s bank accounts.