Russian journalist says he was signed up as a volunteer for the war without his knowledge

Vasily Krestyaninov, a journalist with Russian publication The Insider, says that his online state services account was hacked and he was signed up as a volunteer for the war in Ukraine.

On October 11, he received an email from state services saying that his application to volunteer had been accepted, and that he had been assigned a date to appear at the enlistment office. However, Krestyaninov himself never put in any application to state services.

The journalist reviewed his login sessions and found that his account had been entered from IP addresses in Moscow, Lyuberets just outside of Moscow, and Yerevan.

Krestyaninov left Moscow in November 2021 because of FSB persecution and until recently lived in Georgia. Since September he has been located in Yerevan, after Georgian border control refused him reentry into the country.

The logins from Russian IP addresses were made from Windows systems and through the Yandex web browser, which Krestyaninov says he doesn’t use. The logins from Armenia don’t correspond to times that he was online.

He said that he views the hacking as a political persecution for his journalism and activism.

Follow Meduza in English on Twitter to stay up to date.