The founder of the human rights organization “Agora”, who will defend the journalist Hristo Grozev, declared wanted in Russia – in an exclusive interview for NOVA.
Pavel Chikov stated that there are a total of 180 people on the Moscow blacklist. 19 of them are journalists and six have already been arrested. Grozev is the only one wanted and he is not Russian. According to Chikov, to avoid arrest, the Bulgarian should not set foot in Russia. But he can also be sold to the Kremlin by other neighboring regimes. According to the lawyer, the countries that would help in the detention and transfer to Moscow of Grozev and the others on the list are the former Soviet republics such as Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
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“Grozev is the first foreigner to be prosecuted for allegedly providing false information about Russia and the war in Ukraine. This is totally unusual and shows that the Russian government is very angry with everything it does professionally,” says Chikov . And he adds that it has not yet been officially announced what exactly the Bulgarian journalist is wanted for.
“His name is only: Hristo Grozev. Wanted by the Russian services. His photo is attached and that’s it,” explains the lawyer.
On Russia’s blacklist, the group of journalists is the second largest. Most of them are political activists. By law, anyone accused of spreading false information is punished with 5 to 10 years’ imprisonment.
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“Last spring, Bellingcat was declared a foreign agent in Russia, along with several other groups working as investigative journalists who are monitoring the war in Ukraine. That’s why I don’t think this is a message directed to Bulgaria, but rather a message aimed at silencing all voices,” Chikov commented.
Among the clients of the non-governmental organization “Agora” are members of the Pussy Riot band, as well as the famous journalist Artemi Troitsky. “Agora” works mainly in Russia, but also in Europe and Central Asia. The organization has more than 300 lawyers who have handled thousands of cases, including those of opposition journalists and Kremlin critics.
Watch the full interview with Pavel Chikov on Friday morning in “Hello, Bulgaria”.
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