MOSCOW, February 6. /TASS/. Moscow’s Basmanny District Court has arrested in absentia fiction writer Boris Akunin for inciting to commit terrorism and spreading false information about the Russian army, a court spokesperson told TASS.
Akunin, which is the pen name of Grigory Chkhartishvili, was earlier designated as a foreign agent in Russia and blacklisted as a terrorist and extremist.
"The court ruled that Chkhartishvili should be taken into custody for two months from the date of his detention," the court spokesperson said.
Akunin, declared wanted internationally, is being charged under Article 205.2.2 of the Russian Criminal Code (RCC) ("Public incitement to commit terrorist acts, public justification of terrorism and propaganda of terrorism") and paragraph (d), Article 207.3.2 of the RCC ("Public distribution of patently false information about the use of the Russian Armed Forces"). He faces up to seven years in prison for inciting to commit terrorism and up to ten years for spreading false information.
In an earlier call initiated by well-known Russian pranksters Vladimir Kuznetsov (aka Vovan) and Alexey Stolyarov (aka Lexus), the writer admitted that Kiev would not be able to achieve a military victory in the current conflict but sought to justify Ukraine’s attempts to carry out drone attacks on Russian cities.