Russia Adds Former UK Defence Minister Ben Wallace to Wanted List Over Unspecified Criminal Probe

Russia has placed British former Defence Minister Ben Wallace on a wanted list in connection with an unspecified criminal investigation, according to the Russian Interior Ministry’s database. State-run news agency TASS quoted an unnamed source in law enforcement as saying that the investigation was linked to terrorism-related charges. The entry appears in the ministry’s public database.

Ben Wallace served as the UK’s Secretary of State for Defence from 2019 until August 2023. He held the post before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and has continued to advocate for increased military support for Kyiv. In October 2025, a regional Russian lawmaker called for Ben Wallace to be put on Russia’s wanted list.

The call came after Wallace spoke at the Warsaw Security Forum the previous month. At the Warsaw Security Forum in September 2025, Ben Wallace said: “We have to help Ukraine have the long-range capabilities to make Crimea unviable. We need to choke the life out of Crimea.

And if we do that, I think [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will realise he’s got something to lose. ” Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described Ben Wallace’s remarks as “stupid”.

Dmitry Peskov stated that Moscow does not consider it necessary to comment on statements by former Western officials. The listing of Ben Wallace fits a pattern of prosecutions as the Kremlin has cracked down on dissent concerning its narrative of the war in Ukraine.

In 2024, Putin signed a law allowing authorities to confiscate the assets of people convicted of spreading “deliberately false information” about the military.

The 2024 law covers offences such as “justifying terrorism” and spreading “fake news” about the military. It has been used extensively to silence Putin’s critics. In 2025, Russia’s Federal Security Service opened a criminal case against exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, accusing him of creating a “terrorist organisation” and plotting to violently seize power.

The FSB said the charges against Mikhail Khodorkovsky related to the activities of a Khodorkovsky-backed group that opposes the war in Ukraine. Mikhail Khodorkovsky said Russia was a “fully fledged totalitarian dictatorship” and promised to “fight for a Russia governed by the rule of law and political pluralism”.

Moscow issued an arrest warrant for International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan in 2023.

Independent news outlet Mediazona reported that the Russian Interior Ministry’s wanted list includes dozens of European politicians and officials. Al Jazeera reported that it is not clear how many foreign officials or public figures are on the Russian Interior Ministry’s database of wanted persons.