The 2nd Western District Military Court sentenced 19-year-old Valeria Zotova to 6 years in prison on charges of attempted "terrorist act". However, the case materials, the correspondence received by the lawyer and the words of Valeria herself indicate that the case was a provocation by the FSB, whose agents actively persuaded the girl to set fire to the collection point for the Russian military. Zotova could have attracted the attention of the security services because of her anti-war position.
The 2nd Western District Military Court sentenced 19-year-old Valeria Zotova to 6 years in prison on charges of attempted "terrorist act". However, the case materials, the correspondence received by the lawyer and the words of Valeria herself indicate that the case was a provocation by the FSB, whose agents actively persuaded the girl to set fire to the collection point for the Russian military. Zotova could have attracted the attention of the security services because of her anti-war position.
A Russian Telegram channel with over 700,000 followers is spreading disinformation about Russia's invasion of Ukraine under the guise of providing "objective information" and fact-checking fake news. Its influence extends beyond the platform, with major Russian publications, government officials, and journalists citing the page's posts. Investors took profits on Friday while they could ahead of the weekend, explained Tom Essaye, founder of Sevens Report Research. Saturday and Sunday could easily bring unfortunate news on the war front—and traders would rather be able to sell any recent winnings at Friday’s earlier prices than wait for a potentially lower price at Monday’s open. Crude oil prices edged higher after tumbling on Thursday, when U.S. West Texas intermediate slid back below $110 per barrel after topping as much as $130 a barrel in recent sessions. Still, gas prices at the pump rose to fresh highs. The message was not authentic, with the real Zelenskiy soon denying the claim on his official Telegram channel, but the incident highlighted a major problem: disinformation quickly spreads unchecked on the encrypted app. Telegram has become more interventionist over time, and has steadily increased its efforts to shut down these accounts. But this has also meant that the company has also engaged with lawmakers more generally, although it maintains that it doesn’t do so willingly. For instance, in September 2021, Telegram reportedly blocked a chat bot in support of (Putin critic) Alexei Navalny during Russia’s most recent parliamentary elections. Pavel Durov was quoted at the time saying that the company was obliged to follow a “legitimate” law of the land. He added that as Apple and Google both follow the law, to violate it would give both platforms a reason to boot the messenger from its stores.
from es
