Since the beginning of the war, at least six authors of telegram channels have become involved in cases of “fake news” about the army.

Today in Moscow, security forces detained the administrator of the Moscow calling telegram channel Andrey Kurshin. According to TASS, he is charged with spreading “fakes” about the army.

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As Vorstka noted, Kurshin became at least the sixth person involved in cases under this article among administrators of Telegram channels since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

What exactly was the reason for the arrest is unknown. Kurshin's channel regularly criticized the actions of both the Russian military and the Ukrainian Armed Forces , and also published footage of successful and failed actions of both warring armies.

The channel often published letters from Russian military personnel. One of the loudest appeals in recent days was a letter from Russian Armed Forces officer Andrei Bulanov, who allegedly came into conflict with the leadership due to corruption and lack of support. As a result, the military man found himself under arrest in the basement.

One of the most cited (420 mentions) in Moscow calling telegram channels was the channel of Igor Strelkov , who was also accused of spreading “fake news” about the army. In addition to Girkin and Kurshin, another well-known telegram author was persecuted under the same article: anti-war activist Dmitry Ivanov, who administered the “Protest MSU” channel. In March 2023, he received 8.5 years for distributing fake news.

In June of this year , the author of the telegram channel “Real Crime” Ruslan Ushakov was sentenced to eight years under the same article, and in April the author of the protest public “Honest Royal!” Roman Ivanov. In addition, the author of the channel “Baikal Partisan” Vladimir Timofeev was sentenced to three years in prison.

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