BELGRADE, Oct 9 (Reuters) – The head of the influential Russian war blog Rybar was arrested in Montenegro on Friday, following warnings of attempts to destabilize the country, its prime minister said.
Mikhail Zvinchuk, who is also a former Russian Defence Ministry official, was detained with his wife and three other Russians in the Adriatic resort of Risan, on charges of spreading “Russian influence”, Pobjeda newspaper reported, citing sources.
Rybar – one of the most popular blogs on Russia’s war in Ukraine, with more than 1.5 million subscribers – posted a message saying Zvinchuk and the others had been in the country legally and were planning to film at a monastery there.
“Since there were no violations of local legislation, we expect all detainees to be released,” Rybar said.
The Russian embassy in Podgorica said it had demanded clarification on the reasons for the arrests and immediate consular access to its nationals.
Montenegro’s Prime Minister, Milojko Spajic, posted a message on X confirming Zvinchuk’s detention and saying it had followed warnings that the country would face attempts to destabilise it and hybrid warfare – acts that fall short of direct military conflict.
“There are serious indications that require every lead to be carefully examined and every connection to be viewed in a broader context,” he wrote.
“The message after today’s successful operation, in which the head of the Rybar information network was detained, is clear … Montenegro is protecting its interests, and no one will jeopardize our European future,” he added.
Montenegro has long had fraught relations with Moscow. In 2016, authorities there accused Russia of plotting with a group of Serbian ultranationalists to stage a coup, a charge the Kremlin denied.
Ties soured further when the small Adriatic republic joined NATO in 2017.
Montenegro, a candidate for membership in the European Union, enforced sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine in 2022, banned Russian state media and expelled Russian diplomats for spying. In a retaliatory move, Moscow declared it an enemy state.
Afterr Friday’s arrest, Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said on Friday that Russia may need to “top up” its prisoner exchange fund with European and US citizens to free its own citizens being held in Europe.
“It’s a mistake, of course, for our people to be travelling around European countries. Even if they have good intentions and important goals. Potentially, all (and I emphasise – all) Russians are being hunted down,” Medvedev said on Telegram.
In October 2024, the US State Department offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification of 19 individuals involved in managing Rybar-led social media channels, saying they had promoted Russia’s political interests in the US ahead of the 2024 presidential elections.
“Rybar has sought to … promote social division, stoke partisan and racial discord, and encourage hate and violence in the United States,” the State Department’s Rewards for Justice program said.
Russia’s military bloggers have acted as cheerleaders for the war in Ukraine, while sometimes criticising Russian military commanders for their handling of it.
(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
Comments