Pro-war blogger detained in Russia for criticising authorities and “certain old man” – video

Egor Guzenko, a Russian pro-war blogger who runs the Telegram channel Trinadtsatyi (Thirteenth) with 305,000 subscribers, has been detained in Russia's Stavropol Krai. Source: Meduza, a Latvia-based Russian media outlet, citing Guzenko and a number of Telegram channels Details: Guzenko said that he had been detained in the city of Novopavlovsk, noting that the police "beat him during the detention".

"I've come home for the first time, and this is how my hometown greeted me," he lamented.

The reason for Guzenko's detention remains unclear. However, the Telegram channel Ostrozhno, Novosti (Watch out, News), claims that the pro-war blogger was detained at a concert celebrating the day of Novopavlovsk. Judging by the video posted by the channel, Guzenko was shouting and resisting arrest.

The Telegram channel Mash reported that Guzenko had gotten into a fight with police officers after they commented on the mask he was wearing.

In early September, Guzenko posted several videos on his Telegram channel in which he criticised the Russian authorities. "Traitors have taken over the country," he said. The blogger also stressed that the Russian authorities were "getting rid of  inconvenient people" and cited Russian ultra-nationalist Igor Girkin as an example. Guzenko is believed to have indirectly referred to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, using the phrase "a certain old man." He stated that if this "old man" had "resigned honestly" a decade ago, "all this bulls*it wouldn't have happened."

The blogger said he was not afraid of persecution. "There's a lot of us, a whole nation, and there's just a bunch of you, you're old, you'll all die soon," he added. Later, an audio recording surfaced on his channel, featuring a male voice explaining that Guzenko's "team" had removed certain video recordings because Egor was "a man of storm, element, and emotion." The recording also suggested that Guzenko required a "hospital" for treatment of "serious sores." The Astra Telegram channel writes that Guzenko has been fighting against Ukraine in Donbas since 2014.

In addition, Guzenko's Telegram channel recently criticised a statement made by Apti Alaudinov, the commander of Akhmat, a Chechen armed formation fighting on Russia's side. Alaudinov is refusing to exchange Chechen prisoners of war in Ukrainian captivity, advising them to "wash off their shame with blood" and be slaughtered instead. Background: 

• In February 2024, Russian media and propagandists reported the suicide of pro-war blogger Andrei "Murz" Morozov.

  He left a suicide note indicating a conflict with propagandist Vladimir Solovyov and his associates.

• In January 2024, Igor "Strelkov" Girkin, a war criminal and former head of the so-called "Ministry of Defence of the 'Donetsk People's Republic," was sentenced to four years in a general regime colony for inciting extremist activity in Russia.

  The sentence was linked to his posts on his Telegram channel.

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