A Russian YouTuber deemed prominent in the video-sharing arena has been arrested and charged over accusations of unlawfully obtaining and disseminating state secrets in the previous week, authorities said on Wednesday.

A report detailed that gathering about 800,000 subscribers, the young YouTuber in the name of Andrei Pyzh has been fond of documenting his visits to industrial sites and abandoned bunkers and then later uploading hundreds of these videos on his YouTube channel.

With the number of videos he has already uploaded, a Moscow court said Pyzh could be facing up to eight years in jail if it rules that he is indeed guilty of the said violations pertaining to Russia's state secrecy.

On August 6, the same court ordered that Pyzh be held in pre-trial custody until a hearing that would take place in October. However, sources were not able to immediately verify whether or not Pyzh has reacted to the said accusation.

Pyzh's lawyer pointed out that the arrest did not happen purely just because of his blogs. Instead, the arrest has taken into account Pyzh's illegal acquisition and possible dissemination of Russia's state secrets.

Reportedly, Kommersant who is a nationally distributed daily newspaper in France said that the bloggers abandoned bunkers and decades-long radar stations have been a major contributor to why the court has been to apply for such apartments.

In the court's report, the discussion sheds light on a number of criminal cases that come with the improper use of Russian state secrets but critics say the court's actions only reflect Russia's paranoia.

This is not the first time Russian lawmakers have detained people who were accused of unlawfully obtaining and disseminating data pertaining to their state secrets.

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Representational image. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

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