Moscow court issues arrest warrant for Christo Grozev of Bellingcat for illegal crossing of border

The Lefortovo court in Moscow has issued an arrest warrant for Christo Grozev, the leader of investigative media outlet Bellingcat, for illegally crossing the Russian border, the court’s website says.

Grozev is facing up to two years in prison. Russia declared him wanted last December for “spreading fake news about the Russian army”, according to OVD-Info. In February, Grozev was forced to leave Austria, his home of nearly 20 years, due to security threats.

After that, the journalist said that the Russian intelligence tried to get his personal data. “My personal data was made available to a now former member of the [Austrian] security service at the behest of the Russian intelligence,” he said.

The Bulgarian journalist became famous in Russia for investigating the poisoning of Alexey Navalny. Bellingcat, The Insider, CNN и Der Spiegel did a joint investigation, led by Grozev, which revealed that the FSB, Russia’s Security Service, was allegedly behind the poisoning.