Boris Akunin has long been a critic of the Kremlin. (document)
Moscow:
A Moscow court on Tuesday ordered the arrest in absentia of Boris Akunin, a best-selling Russian author who has written about Russia’s military.
The 67-year-old was charged in December after expressing support for Kyiv during a phone call with a Russian prankster impersonating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Moscow’s Basman District Court ruled that Akunin, who has lived abroad since 2014, would be immediately detained for two months if extradited or set foot in Russia.
Akunin is the pen name of Georgian-born writer Grigory Chehatishvili, who has become one of Russia’s most popular contemporary writers and is best known for his historical detective novels.
He has long been a critic of the Kremlin and denounced Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine as “ridiculous” shortly after the offensive began in February 2022.
In January, Moscow had labeled him a “foreign agent,” a term the Kremlin uses to describe those it considers traitors and enemies of the state.
Moscow made it illegal just weeks after launching an offensive against Ukraine and has since detained thousands of opponents of the conflict.
Many prominent cultural figures have fled Russia since Russia launched its military campaign against Ukraine, and those who remain have faced intense scrutiny.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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