The Russian investigation asks to arrest Hristo Grozev from Bellingcat in absentia

The Lefortovsky District Court of Moscow received a petition for the absentee arrest of Bellingcat investigator Hristo Grozev.

As “Mediazona” reports with reference to the court base, the investigation asks to arrest Grozev on the article about illegal crossing of the Russian border. The meeting is scheduled for April 21.

Last December, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia declared Grozev wanted. At that time, it was not specified under which article a criminal case was opened against the journalist-investigator. Before that, the FSB accused Grozev of helping Ukrainian intelligence.

According to the FSB, employees of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine, “acting on behalf of the political leadership of their country, tried to recruit Russian military pilots for monetary compensation and guarantees of citizenship of one of the European Union countries.” The plan, as it is said, provided that the recruited Russian pilots were to bring the planes to airfields controlled by Ukraine.

In the story of the state TV channel “Russia 24”, a fragment of the correspondence was shown, in which it was stated that Grozev found two couriers to transfer money to the Russian pilot who agreed to be hijacked. There were no such details in the official message of the FSB. It is not clear why he is accused precisely under the article about illegal crossing of the border.

In a conversation with Radio Svoboda, Grozev previously denied reports of participation in any special services operations. According to him, the Bellingcat team filmed an investigative documentary about how the FSB and Ukrainian special services play a game, trying to deceive each other. He also called a fake screenshot of his alleged correspondence, which was shown in a story on Russian television and was called as proof of his participation in the operation.

• Hristo Grozev is a native of Bulgaria. He has been cooperating with the Bellingcat group since 2015. At the beginning of this year, it was reported that he was forced to leave Austria, where he lived for many years, and move to the United States due to threats.
• Bellingcat publishes investigations that often mention special services, famous politicians, and financiers. The group claims that it uses only open sources in its activities. Among Bellingcat’s investigations is the clarification of the details of the crash of the Malaysian “Boeing” over the Donbass and the circumstances of the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.