A Moscow court has issued an arrest warrant in absentia for prominent Russian writer Boris Akunin (aka Grigory Chkhartishvili), who has been accused of calling for "terrorism" and disseminating "fake information" about the Russian Army.
“A preventive detention measure has been issued against Chkhartishvili for a period of two months from the moment of his detention in Russia or extradition,” the Basmanny district court’s press service said on February 6.
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Last month, Russia's Interior Ministry put Akunin on an international wanted list for alleged criminal activity, although specific charges were not listed.
Akunin, 67, who currently lives in London after leaving Russia in 2014, has openly criticized Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Earlier this month, the Russian Justice Ministry declared Akunin a "foreign agent," a punitive list broadly applied to target regime critics.
Last month, Russia's financial watchdog, Rosfinmonitoring, added Akunin to its list of "terrorists and extremists" without any explanation, but media reports said a probe on charges of discrediting Russia's armed forces had been launched against Akunin.
That move came less than a week after one of Russia's largest book publishers and the country's biggest bookstore chain announced that they had dropped Akunin and another popular writer, Dmitry Bykov, over their pro-Ukrainian and anti-Russian comments.
In October, all Russian theaters staging plays based on Akunin's works removed his name from posters.
Akunin was among dozens of Russian writers who openly condemned Russia's aggression against Ukraine. On February 24, 2022, immediately after the beginning of Russia's invasion, he wrote on Facebook that "a new horrible epoch started" in Russia.
"Until the last moment I could not believe that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will launch this absurd war and I was wrong. I have always believed that in the end common sense will win, and I was wrong. Madness won," Akunin wrote.