MOSCOW, May 6. /TASS/. A court in Moscow on Friday issued an arrest warrant in absentia for journalist Alexander Nevzorov (designated as a foreign agent in Russia) in a case of spreading disinformation about the Russian armed forces, the court told TASS.
"The court ruled to arrest Nevzorov in absentia," a court representative said.
It was earlier reported that the Interior Ministry put Nevzorov on the wanted list. Before then, the journalist's wife said that he had left Russia for Israel.
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened a criminal case against Nevzorov for deliberately disseminating false information about the Russian armed forces. According to the investigation, on March 9, on Instagram (banned in Russia; owned by the Meta corporation, which is recognized as extremist in Russia) and on March 19 on YouTube, the journalist deliberately published false information that the Russian Armed Forces intentionally shelled a maternity hospital in Mariupol.
The publications were accompanied by false photographs of civilians affected by the shelling. The sources of these images are the Ukrainian media. The Investigative Committee also said that the Russian Defense Ministry officially announced the information was false. Later, the chairman of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, instructed to analyze Nevzorov's statements related to the special military operation by the Russian military in Ukraine. The investigation is carried out as part of a case that had been earlier opened against the journalist.
On April 22, the Russian Justice Ministry placed Nevzorov into the register of foreign media agents.