MOSCOW -- Ukraine has granted citizenship to one of Russia's most well-known TV journalists and Kremlin critics, Aleksandr Nevzorov, who was labeled as a foreign agent and whose arrest was ordered in absentia in Russia last month.
Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister, said in a post on Telegram on June 3 that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had signed a decree granting Ukrainian citizenship to Nevzorov and his wife Lidia "for transcendental services" for Ukraine.
Earlier in May, a court in Moscow ordered that Nevzorov, who is currently in an unspecified foreign country, be detained for two months should he return to Russia.
The Russian Interior Ministry has accused Nevzorov of "distributing false information about the Russian armed forces."
In March, the Russian Investigative Committee launched a probe against Nevzorov over statements he made on Instagram and YouTube that criticized the armed forces for a deadly assault on a nursing home in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
In early March, President Vladimir Putin signed a law that calls for lengthy prison terms for distributing "deliberately false information" about Russian military operations as the Kremlin seeks to control the narrative about its war in Ukraine.
The law envisages sentences of up to 10 years in prison for individuals convicted of an offense, while the penalty for the distribution of "deliberately false information" about the Russian Army that leads to "serious consequences" is 15 years in prison.
It also makes it illegal "to make calls against the use of Russian troops to protect the interests of Russia" or "for discrediting such use" with a possible penalty of up to three years in prison. The same provision applies to calls for sanctions against Russia.
Nevzorov, who continues to harshly criticize Putin and his government over the Moscow-launched war in Ukraine on his YouTube channel, has rejected all accusations saying he has a right to express his own opinion.