Kolezev Dmitriy Evgenevich

A second criminal case was opened against journalist Dmitry Kolezev for failing to fulfill the obligations of a "foreign agent." Earlier, the journalist was sentenced in absentia to 7.5 years in prison on charges of "war fakes." The law [on "foreign agents"] is, in my opinion, fascist. I consciously did not perform it and do not intend to. There is a lot of work today, and I don't want to be distracted by this meaningless nonsense, Kolozev wrote in his channel." In November 2022, the Ministry of Justice of Russia recognized the journalist as a 'foreign agent'. MIA announced him wanted. Dmitry Kolezev is a former head of the online publication It's My City, dedicated to life in Yekaterinburg, as well as the former editor-in-chief of the Moscow publication Republic. In the past - a leading journalist and head of the Internet publications "Ura.ru" and Znak.com. In Moscow in November 2022, a criminal case was opened against the editor-in-chief of the Republic publication Dmitry Kolezev for spreading knowingly false information about the Russian Armed Forces motivated by political hatred." The reason for initiating the case was Dmitry Kolezev's publication on Instagram about the situation in the Ukrainian city of Bucha. According to the investigation, the publication created a "real threat of forming a false opinion in society about the goals and objectives of the special military operation and sending false actions to further disseminate information that does not correspond to reality about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, capable of causing unjustified social tension, as well as rejection in the international community of official information from the state authorities of the Russian Federation about the goals, objectives, and circumstances of the special military operation, thereby causing harm to the interests of the Russian Federation. Kolezev himself emigrated from Russia in 2022 and now lives in Portugal. In November 2022, the Ministry of Internal Affairs put the journalist on the wanted list. On June 5, 2024, the Basmanny District Court of Moscow issued a decision on the in absentia arrest of the journalist. On July 31, 2024, the Basmanny District Court of Moscow found Dmitry Kolezev guilty and sentenced him in absentia to 7.5 years in a general regime colony with a ban on journalistic activity for 3 years. On November 7, 2024, the Moscow City Court upheld the sentence.