Russian police have arrested President Vladimir Putin's former speechwriter

Vladimir Putin - Russian politician.

Born October 7, 1952 in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg. President Abbas Galyamov on a list of wanted criminals, the Associated Press reported.

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Yesterday, Russian publications and an AP reporter discovered that Galyamov was wanted in the Russian Interior Ministry database.

It said he was wanted "under an article of the Penal Code" but did not mention the law he was accused of breaking.

Last month, Russia's Justice Ministry added Galyamov to its foreign agent registry.

The agency said that he "distributed to an unlimited number of persons materials created by foreign agents, spoke out against the special military operation in Ukraine and participated as an expert and interlocutor in information platforms provided by foreign structures."

Galyamov told the Associated Press yesterday that he had learned from the media that he was wanted.

No law enforcement agency in Russia has contacted him, so they don't know what the charges against him are in Russia.

I assume that formally it is about the crime of discrediting the army.

This is used against anyone who refuses to play by the Kremlin's rules and tries to make an objective and impartial analysis of what is happening, he said in a telephone interview.

Russia publishes a unified list of foreign agents

Galyamov wrote speeches for Putin between 2008 and 2012, when the Russian leader was prime minister.

Subsequently, Galyamov became a well-known political consultant and analyst who was often quoted in Russian and foreign media.

In recent years he has been living abroad.

Discrediting the Russian armed forces has become a crime under a new law passed after Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February last year.

Critics of the Kremlin are regularly accused of it.

Galyamov described the actions against him as part of a "strategy of intimidation" by the Russian government.

This is not an attempt to reach me - it is impossible.

This is a message to others.

Something like: "Don't criticize, don't think that your independent opinion about what's happening will go unpunished," he added.

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