The founder of the human rights organization "Agora", which will defend the journalist Hristo Grozev, wanted in Russia, commented on the case to Nova TV.

Pavel Chikov stated that there are a total of 180 people on Moscow's blacklist.

19 of them are journalists, and six have already been detained.

Grozev is the only one who is wanted and is not Russian.

According to Chikov, in order to avoid arrest, the Bulgarian should not set foot in Russia.

But it can also be handed over to the Kremlin by other nearby regimes.

According to the lawyer, the countries that would help in the detention and transfer to Moscow of Grozev and the others on the list are the former Soviet republics such as Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

"Grozev is the first foreigner to be criminally prosecuted on charges of providing false information about Russia and the war in Ukraine.

This is absolutely unusual and shows that the Russian government is very angry at everything he does professionally," says Chikov.

And he adds that it has not yet been officially announced what exactly the Bulgarian journalist is wanted for.

"His name is only: Hristo Grozev.

Wanted by Russian services.

His photo is attached and that's all," explains the lawyer.

The National Assembly listened to Hristo Grozev, he announced: Russia wants to end my activity as an investigative journalist

In Russia's blacklist, the group of journalists is the second largest.

Most of them are political activists.

By law, anyone accused of spreading false information is punishable by 5 to 10 years in prison.

“Last spring, Bellingcat was declared a foreign agent in Russia, along with several other groups that work as investigative journalists, all of whom are monitoring the war in Ukraine.

For this reason, I do not think that this is a direct message to Bulgaria, but rather a message that aims to silence all voices", commented Chikov.

Among the clients of the non-governmental organization "Agora" are members of the band Pussy Riot, as well as the famous journalist Artemi Troitsky.

"Agora" works mainly in Russia, but also in Europe and Central Asia.

The organization has over 300 lawyers who have taken on thousands of cases, including those of opposition journalists and critics of the Kremlin.

Russia

wanted

investigating journalist

Hristo Grozev