MOSCOW -- A court in Moscow has impounded property belonging to one of Russia's best-known TV journalists and Kremlin critics, Aleksandr Nevzorov, who was recently granted Ukrainian citizenship after being labeled a "foreign agent" and whose arrest was ordered in absentia in Russia last month.
The Basmanny district court said on June 10 that the decision to impound Nevzorov’s house on the shores of the Gulf of Finland was made on May 18 to secure compensation for any possible fines he will be ordered to pay if convicted in a case launched against him on a charge of discrediting Russia's armed forces.
Nevzorov, who is currently outside of Russia in an unspecified country, wrote on Telegram that the most precious things he left in his house were his horse, his dog, and his books.
"In comparison with the ugliness, destruction, and mass killings committed by [Russian President Vladimir Putin's system] in Ukraine, it is nothing. My losses are pretty painful. But I knew what I could face and was ready for everything. To fight against fascism and count on its mercy would be stupid," Nevzorov wrote.
Last week, Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, said in a post on Telegram that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had signed a decree granting Ukrainian citizenship to Nevzorov and his wife Lidia "for transcendental services" to Ukraine.
Earlier in May, a court in Moscow ordered that Nevzorov be detained for two months should he return to Russia.
In March, the Investigative Committee launched a probe against Nevzorov over statements he made on Instagram and YouTube that criticized the armed forces for a deadly assault on a nursing home in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
In the days after launching his invasion of Ukraine on February 24, President Vladimir Putin signed into law legislation that calls for lengthy prison terms for distributing "deliberately false information" about Russian military operations as the Kremlin seeks to control the narrative about its war in Ukraine.
The law envisages sentences of up to 10 years in prison for individuals convicted of an offense, while the penalty for the distribution of "deliberately false information" about the Russian military that leads to "serious consequences" is 15 years in prison.
It also makes it illegal "to make calls against the use of Russian troops to protect the interests of Russia" or "for discrediting such use" with a possible penalty of up to three years in prison. The same provision applies to calls for sanctions against Russia.
Nevzorov, who continues to harshly criticize Putin and his government over the Moscow-launched war in Ukraine on his YouTube channel, has rejected the charges, saying he has a right to express his own opinion.
