A Moscow court today ordered the arrest of one of the most widely read contemporary writers in Russia, Boris Akunin, who was recently wanted on charges of calling for terrorist actions and disseminating false information about the Russian Armed Forces.
The precautionary measure will come into force once Akunin, who lives outside Russia, is captured or extradited and will last two months, reported the press office of the Basmanni district court in Moscow.
Already on the eve of the start of the war in Ukraine, specifically on February 24, 2022, Akunin gave an interview to EFE in which he accused the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, of being a "dictator" with post-imperialist ambitions and of having led the country to a state of "semi-disintegration".
"Moscow considers Ukraine and the other former Soviet republics part of its "zone of influence" and does not want it to be reduced. The entire Ukrainian crisis, from the seizure of Crimea to the financing of the revolt in Donbas, is a punishment to Ukraine because in 2014 the new Government decided to turn from East to West," he said then.
Last December, Amnesty International reacted to the opening of a criminal case against the writer through Marie Struthers, its director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, who described it as "unfounded" and exemplary of "Russia's revengeful attitude against anyone who dares to express dissent."
