Journalist from North Ossetia put on wanted list and added to extremist list

The Russian Interior Ministry has put journalist from North Ossetia Ruslan Totrov on the list of terrorist extremists and put him on the wanted list. He had previously been fined several times for criticizing the Russian authorities.

Last year, a court in Vladikavkaz ruled to fine Ruslan Totrov 20,000 rubles under the article on inciting hatred and enmity against a group of people. Totrov published a post on a social network after a passenger on a Moscow-Vladikavkaz flight was detained for reading a book in Ukrainian. He wrote: “The most popular reaction to this on the Internet is a clown emoji. But the sovereign’s servants are not clowns. They are model fascists.”

Earlier, Ruslan Totrov repeatedly criticized the war in Ukraine and “partial mobilization.” He said that the Ossetians are not part of Putin’s so-called “Russian world.” According to him, the Russian army and the government have discredited themselves at all levels. The journalist was forced to leave Russia.