The testimony against Glukhovsky was given by an employee of the pro-military NewsFront

Accusations of so-called fakes about the army against the writer Dmitry Glukhovsky, whose case is being heard in absentia by a court in Moscow, are based, among other things, on the testimony of an employee of the pro-military Russian news agency NewsFront. This was reported by the correspondent of “Mediazona” from the courtroom.

On Thursday, the prosecutor read the testimony of two prosecution witnesses, which they gave back in May of last year. Among them is NewsFront employee Yulia Lozanova, known as Yulia Vityazeva. Among other things, she runs a Telegram channel with more than 80,000 subscribers and takes a radical pro-war stance. NewsFront is under US sanctions.

The testimony against Glukhovsky Vityazev, as “Mediazona” writes, was given on May 22, 2022. She was not personally familiar with the writer, but saw his posts about Bucha and Mariupol, the prosecutor read her words. According to her, Glukhovsky’s accusations against the Russian military in the murders of residents of these Ukrainian cities “are not substantiated by anything and are considered a provocation”, and the Russian military “strike only military objects” – as the Ministry of Defense claims. Another witness, Ivan Klymov, who “by nature of activity monitors publications on the Internet” gave exactly the same testimony. It is not reported what kind of activity it is.

After announcing the testimony of the witnesses, the defense applied for the summons of Lieutenant General Ihor Dylevsky, who, on behalf of the Ministry of Defense, gave the investigation a certificate about the alleged falsity of Glukhovsky’s posts (he had previously given a similar certificate in relation to media manager Ilya Krasylshchik, who was also convicted in absentia on charges of fakes). Judge Nataliya Dudar agreed to issue a summons to him, but Glukhovsky’s lawyer, not the bailiff, would have to deliver it to the general.

In Vityazeva’s Telegram channel, Glukhovsky’s last name is mentioned 11 times in a negative context. After June 7, 2022, Vityazeva welcomes the writer’s wanted ad. By this time, she had already testified against Glukhovsky, although she did not report this fact on the Telegram channel.

• According to the investigation, in the period from March to May 2022, Glukhovsky, while outside of Russia, “posted text messages and videos on social networks containing knowingly false information about the actions of Russian servicemen” in Ukraine.
• Dmitry Glukhovsky is a modern Russian writer, the author of the “Metro” series of novels and the novel “Text”, which was filmed in 2019. He himself wrote the script for the film “Text”, for which he received the “Nika” film award.
• After the start of Russia’s full-scale military aggression against Ukraine, Glukhovsky sharply criticized the actions of Vladimir Putin. In his social networks, the writer talked about the murders of Ukrainian civilians and the losses of the Russian army. After that, Glukhovsky was recognized as a “foreign agent”, a criminal case was opened against him and he was put on an international wanted list, since he has been living abroad for the past few years. The Russian court arrested the writer in absentia.
• In cases of “fakes”, the courts do not in all cases give real terms, however, as a rule, such a punishment is imposed if the publications of the accused contained statements about the involvement of the Russian army in the murders of residents of Bucha or Mariupol. The Ministry of Defense and Vladimir Putin himself repeatedly called these statements false, and either denied the death of civilians or blamed it on the Ukrainian military or coincidence.