In brief: Dmitry Glukhovsky, the Russian science fiction writer who penned the Metro series and collaborated with 4A Games on the video game versions, has been sentenced to eight years in prison after a Moscow court found him guilty of deliberately spreading false information about Russia's military.
Glukhovsky was placed on Russia's wanted list in June last year over accusations he discreded the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in one of his social media posts.
Days after the invasion of Ukraine, Russia introduced a law that prohibited the spreading of "fake" news about what it has long claimed is a "special military operation" designed to demilitarize and "denazify" Ukraine while protecting its Russian speakers. Those convicted of breaking this law face up to 15 years in prison.
After he left Russia, Glukhovsky wrote in an Instagram post that the war "unleashed by Putin is becoming more terrible and inhuman every day, and the pretexts under which it was started look more and more insignificant and false." He was labeled a "foreign agent" by the Kremlin in October.
Glukhovsky, who also worked as a journalist in Israel and covered the Second Lebanon War in 2006, was the first major cultural figure to be placed on Russia's wanted list.
Associated Press reports that the author has been found guilty of posting text and video messages on his social media channels accusing Russian soldiers of committing crimes in Ukraine, something that Russian prosecutors deny. As he is not in the country, the Russian court tried and sentenced Glukhovsky in absentia.
Glukhovsky worked closely with studio 4A Games on the development of Metro: Last Light. The Ukrainian company, which is developing the highly anticipated next entry in the Metro franchise, relocated from the country to Malta back in 2014 following Russia's annexation of Crimea.
The game industry has become an unexpected part of the war in Ukraine. Russia has been using popular titles such as Minecraft and Roblox to spread propaganda. We've also heard of the Ukraine army using the Steam Deck to control machine gun turrets, and Counter-Strike: Go being used to skirt Putin's media restrictions and inform Russians about the war.