Russia has put UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace on its target list | News of the Russian-Ukrainian war

Wallace last year called for Ukraine to strike a bridge linking Russia with Crimea.

Russia has put former British defense minister Ben Wallace on its wanted list for an undisclosed investigation, according to a Russian Interior Ministry database cited by state media.

The state-run news agency TASS quoted an unnamed law enforcement source as saying the investigation was linked to “terrorism-related cases”.

Wallace has been the UK’s defense minister since 2019 – earlier Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 – until August 2023. He continues to promote military aid to Kyiv and oppose Russian aggression.

In October last year, a Russian lawmaker called for Wallace to be placed on Russia’s wanted list for comments he made last month at the Warsaw Security Forum about Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.

During the event, Wallace advocated for Ukraine to carry out a military attack on the bridge connecting southern Russia with Crimea.

“We have to help Ukraine have the long-term ability to make Crimea impossible. We have to choke the life of Crimea. And if we do that, I think (Russian President Vladimir) Putin will realize that he has something to lose,” he said. “We have to break the cursed bridge.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov at the time described Wallace’s comments as “ridiculous”, stressing that Moscow does not consider it necessary to comment on the comments of Western officials.

To resolve the conflict

Many people and groups inside and outside of Russia are on trial as the Kremlin has condemned the protests against what happened in Ukraine.

In 2024, Putin signed a law allowing authorities to confiscate the assets of people convicted of spreading “deliberate disinformation” about the war. It covers offenses such as “justifying terrorism” and spreading “disinformation” about the war, and has been widely used to silence Putin’s opponents.

Last year, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) opened a case against the exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovskythey are accusing him of creating a “terrorist group” and planning a violent coup.

The FSB said the charges were related to the activities of Khodorkovsky’s anti-war group in Ukraine. Khodorkovsky said Russia was a “tyrannical dictatorship” and pledged to “fight for a more constitutional and political Russia”.

Moscow issued an arrest warrant to International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan in 2023 after issuing a warrant for Putin’s arrest for war crimes.

It is not known how many foreign officials or public figures are on the Russian Interior Ministry’s database of wanted persons. Independent media outlet Mediazona reported that the list includes European politicians and officials.