Ukraine war latest: Biden calls Putin a ‘war criminal’

Russian investigators on Wednesday launched a felony case towards a blogger for spreading what they referred to as “knowingly false data” concerning the warfare in Ukraine, within the first use of a brand new regulation that carries a potential sentence of as much as 15 years in jail.

The investigative committee mentioned the case was opened towards Veronika Belotserkovskaya over a number of entries revealed on her Instagram web page.

These “contained knowingly false details about using the [Russian armed forces] to destroy cities and the civilian inhabitants in Ukraine, together with youngsters, throughout a particular navy operation on the territory of that state”.

It marks the primary use of a brand new regulation launched on March 4, per week after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, making the dissemination of false details about the actions of the Russian navy a felony offence.

“So?! First one down? I’ve been formally declared an honest individual!” a message posted on Belotserkovskaya’s Instagram web page, the place she has greater than 890,000 followers, mentioned, along with the information of the case. She seems to be presently based mostly outdoors of Russia.

Different instances are additionally below investigation, the committee mentioned. It shared a video of members of the safety service, some armed and in camouflage, visiting the house of a younger man in Tomsk and a lady in close by Seversk.

A minimum of 180 administrative, relatively than felony, instances have additionally been opened below one other separate censorship regulation that introduces felony legal responsibility for public actions “aimed toward discrediting” the Russian armed forces.

Most frequently, instances are launched towards folks for staging one-person pickets, for the labels on their clothes and for posts on social media, in accordance with Community Freedoms, a challenge of the Agora human rights NGO.