Andrey Kurshin

Andrey Vladimirovich Kurshin is a Russian milblogger who ran the Moscow Calling channel on Telegram. Kurshin gained notoriety for being arrested by Russian authorities for discrediting the Russian Armed Forces during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Biography Kurshin was born on 12 June 1988. He fought for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic from 2014 to 2015 under the call sign Moskva during the war in Donbas. Upon returning to Russia, Kurshin started the Moscow Calling channel to cover the Russo-Ukrainian War and notably adopting a more moderate position on the war. While running Moscow Calling, Kurshin also worked as a software engineer for the firm Rif, which develops weapons-related software, and claims to have contacts in high places within the Russian military. In May 2023, he claimed that pro-war activists threw a brick through the window of his mother's house. The Russian state news agency TASS reported that Kurshin was arrested for violating Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of Russia for the "dissemination of deliberately false information about the Russian Armed Forces". On 7 August 2024, Kurshin was sentenced to 6 and a half years in prison.