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Bellingcat journalist Christo Grozev put on Russian interior ministry’s wanted list

Christo Grozev takes an active part in the activities of the Bellingcat media outlet, which probed into Russian blogger Alexey Navalny’s poisoning and highlighted a number of other high-profile incidents

MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/. Bellingcat (recognized in Russia as foreign agent mass media outlet) journalist Christo Grozev has been put on Russia’s wanted list, according to the Russian interior ministry’s database of wanted persons, which was updated on Monday.

"[Grozev] is wanted on Russian Criminal Code charges," the entry says.

A spokesman for Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) told the Rossiya-24 television channel in late July that Grozev was involved in an attempted hijacking of several warplanes, namely an Su-24 bomber, an Su-34 fighter jet, and a Tu-22M3 supersonic missile-carrying bomber. The operation was masterminded by the Ukrainian Security Service and Grozev coordinated its participants’ actions.

Grozev was born in Bulgaria’s Plovdiv in 1969. He worked for local radio stations and other mass media outlets. In 1995, he was hired by the US’ Metromedia to work with its Russian assets. He launched Radio Nika in Sochi, Melodiya and Eldoradio in St. Petersburg and tens of other radio stations in Baltic countries, Finland, Bulgaria, and Hungary. Later, he acquired shares in Russian radio stations from Metromedia. In 2006, he sold all of his media projects in Russia and in 2016, the FSB annulled his sojourn permit.

Grozev, a business partner of media manager Karl Habsburg-Lothringen, the head of the House of Habsburg, takes an active part in the activities of the Bellingcat media outlet, which probed into Russian blogger Alexey Navalny’s poisoning and highlighted a number of other high-profile incidents. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office recognized Bellingcat’s activities as unwanted in Russia.

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