Russian blogger critic of Kremlin detained on violence charges

A Russian court has detained "military correspondent" Igor Guzenko for two months. He operates the "Thirteenth" channel on Telegram. The reason for his detention is resisting the police. Previously, Guzenko wrote about "traitors in the Kremlin" and criticised the authorities.

According to the Stavropol Territory Court's statement, the blogger is accused of "using violence" against a government official, which could result in a sentence of up to five years in prison.

Before his arrest, Guzenko had been placed on the federal wanted list for hooliganism, an offence carrying a potential prison sentence of up to seven years. The Stavropol Territory Court noted that in 2022, he violated the terms of his house arrest by going to fight in Ukraine, subsequently adding him to the wanted list.

In early September, Guzenko published a series of emotional videos on his Telegram channel called "Thirteenth", in which he harshly criticised Vladimir Putin, the Russian government, and the military leadership.

This occurred amid news of criminal proceedings for "discrediting" the army against his colleague, war correspondent Alexander Sladkov. Guzenko accused Putin of failing to start a full-scale war in 2014, which he believes led to the current crisis in Ukraine.

- If ten years ago an old man hadn't backed down and had fought honestly in 2014, all this rubbish wouldn’t have happened, and so many young men would not have died. And now we end up captives and are being killed - he said.

Guzenko also expressed the opinion that Russia is led by traitors who currently "sit in the Kremlin".

The man emphasised that the authorities persecute those they dislike, citing Igor Girkin (Strelkov) as an example, who was convicted in the Russian Federation for extremism. He was a former commander of separatist formations in Donbas who started the war in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment by the court in The Hague.

In early October, Guzenko complained that the Russian army fighting in Ukraine does not have enough missiles to actively conduct combat operations. He linked this to Kyiv's attacks on Russian arsenals.

"Thirteenth" was detained on 5th October in the central square of Novopavlovsk in the Stavropol Territory during the city's holiday celebrations. According to the Baza channel, a "packet with an unknown substance" was found in the blogger's pocket. Guzenko refused to undergo a medical examination.

Meanwhile, the Mash channel reported that the blogger's arrest was prompted by a confrontation with a policeman. The cause was the mask the blogger wore, which supposedly "alarmed the surroundings."

In a short video that the blogger posted on his channel immediately after the arrest, he complained about the use of force by law enforcement officers against him.