Head of Conflict Intelligence Team Ruslan Leviev arrested in absentia under ‘fake news’ law

Moscow’s Basmanny Court has ruled to arrest head of open-source intelligence platform Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) Ruslan Leviev (Karpuk) in absentia for spreading “false information” about the Russian military, Mediazona news outlet reports.

The arrest will be in force for two months from the moment of his detention on Russian territory or his extradition to Russia. The Russian Interior Ministry issued an arrest warrant for Leviev. He is accused of spreading “fake information” about the Russian military by “artificially creating evidence” against the armed forces.

The prosecution noted that blogger Michael Naki was also a defendant in the case. A warrant was issued for his arrest as well. According to the prosecution, the criminal case was opened on 16 March.

“This (the criminal case — editor’s note) won’t affect the work of the CIT on the whole, and I left Russia a long time ago. The CIT team is working from an office in Tbilisi, Georgia. We closed our Moscow office. I took my stuff with me when I left Russia, I have nothing there. There is nothing left in the place where I used to live, all the “evidence” was destroyed a long time ago: documents, computers and so on,” Leviev told The Insider news outlet when asked to comment on the criminal charges against him.

CIT has been investigating military conflicts since 2014. Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Leviev and Naki have been recording video reports on the situation on the frontlines, published on Naki’s YouTube channel.