MOSCOW, April 3 - RAPSI. The Presnensky District Court in Moscow has granted the investigators' request to arrest lawyer Boris Kuznetsov in absentia on Wednesday, RAPSI reports from the court. He was charged with revealing state secrets, and now resides in the United States.

"Kuznetsov is hiding from the investigative authorities and has avoided contributing to the investigation," an investigative officer said in court.
Investigators claim that Kuznetsov photographed an FSB document regarding the tapping of an official's phone that had been marked "secret."

When the Supreme Court considered the decision to strip former Federation Council member and Republic of Kalmykia representative Levon Chakhmakhchyan of his parliamentary immunity, Kuznetsov pledged not to reveal the secret information in the case. However, he took the photograph, showed it to a colleague, and then sent it to the Constitutional Court.

After Kuznetsov was charged with revealing state secrets in 2007, he sought political asylum in the United States. The court then issued a warrant to detain Kuznetsov in absentia, but the warrant was withdrawn in 2009.

In 2008, Chakhmakhchyan was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for attempted fraud. He was released on parole in January 2012.

Kuznetsov worked on many high-profile criminal and human rights cases. He represented the families of the 118 sailors who died on the Kursk nuclear submarine, the relatives of murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya, scientist Igor Sutyagin, who was imprisoned for espionage, NGO head Manana Aslamazyan, and KGB General Oleg Kalugin, who sued President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990 for stripping him of his awards and his military rank for exposing KGB operations.