Kennedy Jr., has been charged by a Moscow court after he said he fought with the Ukrainian army, becoming the latest U.S. citizen to be placed on the country's wanted list. The Basmanny District Court of Moscow authorized the arrest in absentia of Conor Kennedy, who has been accused of acting as a mercenary for the Ukrainian armed forces, state outlet Tass reported on August 12. The case could further strain the relationship between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart, given that Robert F Kennedy Jr. is a key part of the U.S. president's Cabinet.
The charges faced by Conor Kennedy, 32, the grandnephew of former President John F. Kennedy and the former boyfriend of pop star Taylor Swift, could lead to up to 10 years in prison in the unlikely event he appeared in court for a conviction. On October 14, 2022, Conor Kennedy posted on Instagram that he had joined Ukraine's International Legion in a stint that "wasn't long." He continued: "But I saw a lot and I felt a lot.
I liked being a soldier, more than I had expected." "It is scary. But life is simple, and the rewards for finding courage and doing good are substantial," he added, along with an image of a soldier whose back is turned. On his back, a message in Ukrainian ends "glory to Ukraine!" Newsweek has contacted Conor Kennedy via Instagram for further comment.
According to Tass' report, similar rulings have been issued against other members of the Ukrainian International Legion, including 37-year-old American Tracy James Ingram Asbill, whose call sign is Mickey. But a Kremlin clampdown since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine has seen American politicians, business owners and journalists also placed on the list, according to the independent Russian outlet Mediazona, which says charges are often not named. Among them was Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, whose bipartisan bill imposing tough sanctions on Russia the GOP-led Senate passed shortly after his unexpected death last month at the age of 71.
In November 2023, Andy Stone, a spokesperson of the tech giant Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, was added to the list after Russian authorities classified Meta as a "terrorist and extremist" organization. Intelligence foreign policy analyst Malcolm Nance, who announced in April 2022 that he had joined the international legion, is on the list. Marine who was exchanged in a prisoner swap that same month, is also on the list.
The journalists Fletcher Young and Sarah Ashton-Cirillo are also listed. The latter served as a spokesperson for Ukraine's military after she traveled from the U.S. in March 2022 and later joined the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces. Basketballer Donica Cosby—who played in Belarus, Russia's closest ally, with the Minsk club Horizont and won the 2024 Belarus Cup—was alerted to her wanted notice by Mediazona, which said the Russian Interior Ministry includes on its wanted list people sought by its Belarusian counterparts.
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