The prosecutor’s office approved the charge against Katsu, who faces up to 10 years in prison

The Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia approved the indictment in the criminal case brought against the politician and YouTube channel host Maxim Kats. The oppositionist will be tried on the article about the so-called public dissemination of fakes about the Russian army on the grounds of political, ideological, national hatred, as well as hatred against a social group.

The reason for the initiation of the case was a broadcast on Kats’s YouTube channel on April 3 of last year, in which he spoke about the crimes of the Russian military against the Ukrainian civilian population. The Prosecutor General’s Office insists that “criminal actions are not committed against civilians”, and the materials published by the Ukrainian mass media about the commission of crimes by Russian soldiers on the territory of Ukraine “are provocations”.

According to the accusation, Katsu faces up to ten years in prison. The oppositionist himself left Russia. Ego will be judged in absentia.

In October last year, the Ministry of Internal Affairs declared Kats wanted. Then he noted that he knew about the criminal case. The politician ordered a certificate of criminal record, and it said that he was being prosecuted under a criminal article.

Maksym Kats talks about Russia’s war with Ukraine on his YouTube channel. The politician has more than one and a half million subscribers.

In July of last year, the Ministry of Justice of Russia entered Kats into the register of natural persons – “foreign agents” whose activities are financed by Ukraine. In October 2022, Kats was entered into the “Peacemaker” base as a threat to the security of Ukraine.