Popular historian faces fresh criminal charges for spreading ‘false information’ about the Russian military

A fresh criminal case has been opened against Russian historian Tamara Eidelman for spreading “false information” about the Russian military, state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday, citing a source in law enforcement.

The basis for the fresh charges were posts on Eidelman’s Telegram channel said to contain “inaccurate data” about Russian troops, the source said.

In January, RIA Novosti, again citing a source in law enforcement, wrote about a second criminal case against Eidelman for “rehabilitating Nazism” online, though did not specify what had caused the new charges to be brought.

Eidelman first faced criminal charges for “rehabilitating Nazism” in June of last year. On that occasion, the security forces found statements in a video on the Eidelman YouTube channel “expressing clear disrespect” for a “day of military honour” and for “insulting the memory” of Russian servicemen.

Eidelman, who was declared a “foreign agent” in September 2022 for her anti-war stance, runs a popular history channel on YouTube with over 1.8 million subscribers. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Eidelman has been living with her daughter in Portugal and has not returned to Russia.