Bestselling Russian Writer Arrested for Supporting Ukraine

A Moscow court has ordered the arrest of bestselling detective novelist Boris Akunin on charges of “justifying terrorism” after he was pranked into expressing support for Ukraine on a phone call. The writer, known under the pen name Grigory Chkhartishvili, was added to Russia’s register of “extremists and terrorists” over the call, leading to a criminal case being opened against him. Meanwhile, Alexei Navalny, a top Kremlin foe, has been placed in a one-man punishment cell in the remote Arctic penal colony where he is serving a 19-year sentence, facing solitary confinement over minor infractions.