Investigative Committee: journalist Nevzorov faces charges for misinformation about Russia's military activities

MOSCOW. March 22 (Interfax) - The Russian Investigative Committee has launched a criminal inquiry against the journalist Alexander Nevzorov over the dissemination of "fake" information on the activities of Russia's armed forces.

"A criminal case has been opened against journalist Alexander Nevzorov. His actions bear the hallmarks of a crime as stipulated in Article 207.3(2)(d) of the Russian Criminal Code (public dissemination of knowingly false information disguised as credible reports about the activities of the Russian Federation Armed Forces)," the committee said.

According to the inquiry, Nevzorov "published knowingly false information about a deliberate attack by Russian Federation Armed Forces on a maternity hospital in Mariupol on his public page on Instagram, the social-networking site banned in the Russian Federation, and on a YouTube channel on March 19, 2022."

"The publications were accompanied by unauthentic pictures of civilians hurt in the attack. The source from where those images have spread are the Ukrainian media. The Russian Federation Defense Ministry has officially declared this information, which was circulated on the Internet, to be false," the committee said.

Efforts are under way to locate Nevzorov for relevant inquiries, it said.