A Moscow court has issued a search and arrest warrant this Wednesday against a German journalist, who is attributed with an alleged crime of incitement to hatred that could lead to a sentence of up to six years in prison.
The journalist in question is Michael Martens, correspondent for the newspaper 'Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung' in the Russian capital, against whom there is now an arrest warrant issued by the Basmanny district court of Moscow, according to the Russian news agency TASS.
The case dates back to early August, when the reporter asked the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, who was on an official visit to Serbia at that time, what European countries could do to "contribute to killing more Russians."
The Russian Foreign Ministry has interpreted this question as a call for the assassination of Russian citizens, something it has labeled as "unacceptable and criminal," according to statements from its spokesperson, Maria Zakharova.
From the German newspaper, they have defended that Martens' intervention was posed ambiguously and have lamented the misunderstanding generated. "We have clarified this point and regret the wording," the outlet has stated.