Varlamov Ilya Aleksandrovich

Varlamov Ilya Aleksandrovich

Biography

2025: Arrest of accounts amid criminal case to discredit Russian army

The Meshchansky District Court of Moscow arrested the accounts of blogger Ilya Varlamov (recognized by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation as a foreign agent), accused of discrediting the Russian army. This became known on February 28, 2025. The court granted the request of the investigation to block funds, as reported by the press service of the Moscow courts in the official Telegram channel.

According to Forbes, a criminal case was initiated against Ilya Varlamov on evading the duties of a foreign agent (part 2 of article 330.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), which provides for punishment of up to two years in prison. The case was initiated by the Moscow prosecutor's office back in September 2024 on the basis of repeated violations of the legislation on foreign agents.

Varlamov was repeatedly brought to administrative responsibility for the lack of appropriate labeling in his publications. In August 2023, the court fined the blogger ₽30 thousand for the lack of marking of the foreign agent in posts on Telegram. In December of the same year, he was sentenced to another fine of ₽50 thousand for a similar violation. In February 2025, the court again fined Varlamov for distributing content without specifying the status of a foreign agent by ₽45 thousand.

In addition to the case of violation of the legislation on foreign agents, the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow received an administrative protocol against Varlamov in the case of discrediting the Russian army (part 1 of article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation). However, the protocol was returned to the Tver interdistrict prosecutor. The official reasons for initiating a case to discredit the armed forces were not specified.

Ilya Varlamov left the territory of Russia after the start of a special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. In March 2023, the blogger was included in the register of foreign agents. The Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation then stated that the journalist disseminated inaccurate information about the Russian authorities and its policies, and also received support from "foreign sources."^[1]

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