Moscow places Russian writer Boris Akunin on list of “foreign agents”

The writer Boris Akunin, who has lived in exile since 2014, is the target of an investigation in Russia for “spreading false information” about the army and “calling for terrorism,” the Russian authorities announced on Tuesday. Real name Grigori Tchkhartishvili, this well-known novelist was placed in mid-January on the list of “foreign agents” published by the Russian Ministry of Justice, after having been added to the list of “terrorists and extremists” in December.

The writer is accused of “public calling to carry out terrorist activities” and “public dissemination of knowingly false information” about the Russian army, according to the Basmanny court in Moscow. The charge of spreading “false information” about the Russian military carries a maximum prison sentence of 15 years. Several hundred ordinary Russians have already been convicted under this article of the Criminal Code for almost two years. Russian authorities accuse Boris Akunin of “opposing” the military assault in Ukraine.

Born in 1956 in Georgia, then a Soviet republic, Boris Akunin is a writer known in Russia for his historical detective novels, notably the successful saga The Investigations of Erastus Fandorin, a hero living in the Tsarist era. He also wrote History of the Russian State, a compilation in nine volumes which traces the developments of the Russian state until the revolution of 1917. Akunin spoke out in 2014 against the annexation of the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula , before going into exile in London, where he has lived ever since.

On February 24, 2022, he deplored on Facebook the outbreak of “an absurd war” in Ukraine and in the process he co-founded the Nastoïashtchaïa Rossia (“Real Russia”) project, supported by several cultural figures in exile and supposed to help Ukrainian refugees. Moscow made criticism of the army illegal shortly after launching its offensive against Ukraine on February 24, 2022.