Russian prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for hundreds of foreigners including the prime minister of Estonia, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, top human rights officials and even the spokesperson for the social media company Meta, according to a leak of Internal Affairs Ministry records.
Russian investigative reporters Mediazona found the database of 96,752 suspects could be accessed from the internet, then built a search tool to allow searches by name and discovered a large number of indicted foreigners. These included foreign fighters supporting Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion, officials with the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Ukrainian officials and lawmakers in Baltic states that voted to remove Soviet memorials from World War Two. Russian citizens lead the list with over 31,000 names listed.
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Although Graham’s indictment, for strongly supporting Ukraine’s government, was noted last May, other names accessible on the database include Piotr Hofmański, the president of the International Criminal Court, which indicted Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes in Ukraine. He is wanted by the Eastern Administrative District of Moscow, according to the database. Andy Stone, press secretary to Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta, faces charges from Russia’s Central Administrative District police department of aiding terrorism.
The inclusion of a slew of politicians from Baltic states – whose independence after previously being part of Russia during the communist era has long posed tensions with Moscow – appears related to a series of removals of Soviet monuments from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which Russian prosecutors decided constituted being pro-Nazi.
Estonian PM Kaja Kallas faces charges of politically supporting the removal of a monument of a Russian tank from the capital Tallinn in 2022, according to the database, and confirmed by a Russian official.
Estonia has recently warned NATO that the Russians are increasing their military presence along the border as tensions between the alliance and Moscow escalate.
Dozens of other Baltic lawmakers, including judges, members of parliament and former political figures also face charges for supporting the removal of monuments.
“Crimes against the memory of the liberators of the world from Nazism and fascism must be answered,” said Russian spokesperson Maria Zakharov on Telegram.
