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Cybersecurity

Russia Seeks to Punish Expats Who Criticize War on Social Media

Crackdown part of a broader effort to limit dissent after invasion of Ukraine.

Michael Nacke faces between five and ten years in prison if he returns to his homeland of Russia, for criticizing the war in Ukraine on YouTube — Michael Nacke faces between five and ten years in prison if he returns to his homeland of Russia, for criticizing the war in Ukraine on YouTube
Source: Michael Nacke

By

Margi Murphy and

July 11, 2022, 9:00 AM UTC

Michael Nacke, a popular YouTube personality based in Lithuania, said his phone started blowing up with text messages one May evening asking if he was a “foreign agent.”

Friends and family had spotted his name in a news article claiming that Nacke, a Russian native, had been charged with disseminating false information about that country’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. The charge stemmed from a March 16 video about an alleged Russian attack on a Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, an incident the Kremlin denied.