The historian of Russian cuisine and writer Pavel Syutkin has been detained in connection with a criminal case on “military fakes.”

A criminal case has been initiated against Pavel Syutkin, a historian of Russian cuisine and writer, for alleged military “fake news” (article 207.3, part 2, paragraph d of the Russian Criminal Code). His wife, Olga Syutkina, told OVD-Info about the case. The Moscow Investigative Committee also reported the launch of the case.

Syutkin is being accused over a post about the events in Bucha, written back in 2022. In the morning, Investigative Committee officers came to his home. The writer is currently being held in a temporary detention centre, and in the coming days, pretrial restrictions will be decided. A lawyer from OVD-Info is representing Pavel Syutkin’s interests.

In June, law enforcement already searched the home of Pavel and his wife Olga, seizing electronic devices. Olga shared: “We assumed that sooner or later this story would continue. What steps could we have taken? To leave somewhere? No, that would not have been fair. People read us, people are in solidarity with us. And if we suddenly dropped everything and left… that would not be fair in relation to our own position, or to those people who support us.”

Olga believes that any spreading of information about the case, as well as buying her husband’s books, is a way to support him: “It’s not about the material value, but about informational support. Pavel Pavlovich is a writer, with some ten books to his name, he’s a historian, a candidate of historical sciences. And buying a book is, first and foremost, support for him as a person.”

• Pavel Syutkin is the author of about 10 books on the history of Russian cuisine, many of them co-written with his wife.