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Exiled Russian writer and poet Dmitry Bykov survived a poisoning attempt by the FSB in 2019. Photo: Sergei Karpukhin / TASS
Russian poet and writer Dmitry Bykov has been added to the government’s list of “terrorists and extremists,” according to an entry posted on Sept. 11 by Russia’s federal financial monitoring agency Rosfinmonitoring. The move requires Russian banks to freeze all of Bykov’s accounts and stop providing him with financial services.
The measures are linked to the criminal case launched by Russian authorities against Bykov, who is accused of “knowingly spreading false information” about the Russian armed forces by posting an interview in 2023 that prosecutors say contained false claims about the military’s actions during the invasion of Ukraine.
Article 207.3 of Russia’s Criminal Code, better known as the “law on fakes,” was passed shortly after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It is routinely used by the Kremlin to persecute dissidents and those who oppose the war. Penalties range from heavy fines to prison terms of up to 15 years in cases where the alleged “false information” is judged to have caused “serious consequences.”
Those put behind bars after being found guilty of “violating” the “law on fakes” include opposition politicians Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza, who were both freed last year in the largest prisoner exchange since the end of the Cold War. In addition, Moscow municipal deputy Alexei Gorinov, journalist Maria Ponomarenko, and Novy Fokus founder Mikhail Afanasyev remain in prison after being sentenced under the article.
Bykov is also accused of systematically failing to comply with the country’s “foreign agents” law. He was added to the Justice Ministry’s register in July 2022 but nevertheless did not caveat his social media posts with the disclaimer required by Moscow.
Russian authorities have declared Bykov, who lives in the United States, to be under arrest in absentia. Moscow’s Cheryomushkinsky District Court has begun hearing his criminal case on the charges against him.
Bykov, who has taught at Cornell University since leaving Russia in 2022, is now a visiting assistant professor at the University of Rochester in upstate New York.
This is not the first time the poet has run afoul of the Kremlin. In April 2019, Bykov fell seriously ill aboard a plane traveling to the Russian city of Ufa. He displayed symptoms that included vomiting, sweating, and heavy breathing. He was hospitalized and remained in a medically-induced coma for several days.
Reporting by Bellingcat and The Insider revealed the illness was caused by poisoning, carried out by the same FSB operatives involved in the poisonings of Kara-Murza and Alexei Navalny.