On Friday, the Lefortovsky District Court in Moscow, at the request of the investigation, arrested Bellingcat investigator Hristo Grozev in absentia.
According to “Mediazona” with reference to the basis of the court, the investigation asked to arrest Grozev under the article on illegal crossing of the Russian border.
Last December, the Russian Interior Ministry put Grozev on the wanted list. Under which article a criminal case was opened against the investigative journalist, it was not specified. Prior to this, the FSB had accused Grozev of helping Ukrainian intelligence services.
According to the FSB, employees of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine, “acting on behalf of the political leadership of their country, attempted to recruit Russian military pilots in return for a monetary reward and guarantees of obtaining Russian citizenship. ‘one of the EU countries’. The plan would have called for recruited Russian pilots to fly the planes to airfields under Ukrainian control.
The plot of the state television channel “Russia 24” showed a fragment of the correspondence, which claimed that Grozev found two couriers to transfer money to a Russian pilot who agreed to hijack. There were no such details in the official FSB report. Why he is charged under the article on illegal border crossing, when and where Grozev crossed it, is unclear.
Grozev commented on the court’s decision on Twitter, citing what he claims was a joke by The Insider editor Roman Dobrokhotov that Russian authorities could have just poisoned their opponents in absentia and calmed down.
Grozev, in a conversation with Radio Liberty, previously denied reports of involvement in special service operations. According to him, the Bellingcat team was shooting an investigative documentary about how the FSB and Ukrainian intelligence agencies play at trying to get things wrong. He also called a fake screenshot of his alleged correspondence, shown in the Russian TV storyline and designed to serve as evidence of his own involvement in the operation.
Hristo Grozev is from Bulgaria. He has worked with the Bellingcat Group since 2015. Earlier this year it was reported that he was forced to leave Austria, where he lived for many years, and move to the United States in due to threats.
Bellingcat publishes surveys that often mention intelligence agencies, well-known politicians and financiers. The group claims to use only open sources in its activities. Among Bellingcat’s investigations are the details of the Malaysian Boeing crash over the Donbass and the circumstances of the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
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