JRL NEWSWATCH: “Chat Group Becomes Target of Moscow’s Wrath as Security Crackdown Widens” – New York Times/ Andrew Higgins
“The group started out as an online discussion of hobbies, schoolwork and sometimes politics. But then it was infiltrated by an informer for Russia’s all-powerful security services.”
“… [T]he chat group … was joined by a new member who promoted unusually strident views … and pushed to turn the online chatter into a political movement …. [He] gave his name as Ruslan Danilov and wrote a political manifesto … calling for … Putin’s overthrow and having a ‘people’s tribunal’ prosecute him … actually [being] an informer and agent provocateur working for Russia’s security apparatus. As a result
… a Moscow court … found seven original members of the group guilty …. All had pleaded not guilty and accused the informer of setting them up. … [The case included] allegations of entrapment by the [FSB] ….”