Russia: Forbes journalist arrested on charges of "spreading fake news"

(AFP/ VOZ MEDIA) Russian authorities have arrested Forbes journalist Sergei Mingazov. His arrest was revealed this Friday by the economic publication itself, Russia detained the journalist on suspicion of spreading "fake news" about alleged abuses committed by the Russian army in Ukraine. Specifically, AFP explained, he is accused of "sharing posts about the events in Bucha on the Khabarovskaya Mingazeta Telegram channel."

As stated in a Telegram statement by the editor's lawyer, Konstantin Bubon, the journalist was detained in Khabarovsk, in the Russian Far East. After this, he was transferred to a detention center in the city of Khabarovsk where he is being held awaiting a sentence that, his lawyer assured, could be up to 10 years in prison.

Forbes indicated that so far "he has not been able to come into contact with Mingazov."

The Forbes journalist, the latest case in a long list of opponents against Russia

Mingazov's case is not the only one; in recent years several critics of the Russian offensive in Ukraine have been arrested for similar reasons. Some were specifically sentenced for having denounced the Bucha massacre, such as the opposition Ilya Yashin, who received a sentence of eight and a half years in prison.

The documentary filmmaker also joins the list Vsevolod Korolyov, whom the Russian authorities sentenced in March to three years in detention, and Yuri Kokhovets, who was sentenced this month to five years of correctional work for criticizing the offensive in Ukraine by being interrogated in public by journalists.

Likewise, in January, a human rights activist, Grégori Winter, was sentenced to three years in prison for spreading "false information" about the events in Bucha.

The Russian army is accused of having committed a massacre in this Ukrainian town during its withdrawal from the region in the spring of 2022.

Moscow denies the accusations and alleges that it was a Western "setup," rejecting the multiple testimonies and evidence presented by Ukrainian residents and authorities.

Almost all of the best-known Russian opponents fled Russia or were imprisoned.

The most important of all, Alexei Navalny, died under undetermined circumstances in an Arctic prison in February.