The move - which means spokesman Andy Stone now faces charges - comes weeks after Russia classified Meta as a "terrorist and extremist" organisation.
ADVERTISEMENTRussian authorities have added the spokesperson for Meta - the parent company of Facebook and Instagram - to a wanted list.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone is wanted on criminal charges in the country, according to the Russian interior ministry's database, which doesn't give further details of the case against him.
Russian state agency Tass and independent news outlet Mediazona first reported that the tech giant's communications director was included on the list on Sunday.
The move comes just weeks after Russian authorities classified Meta as a "terrorist and extremist" organisation, opening the way for possible criminal proceedings against Russian residents using its platforms.
Meta didn't immediately respond to a request from Associated Press for comment.
According to Mediazona, an independent news website that covers Russia's opposition and prison system, Stone was put on the wanted list in February 2022, but authorities made no related statements at the time and no news media reported on the matter until this week.
In March this year, Russia's federal Investigative Committee opened a criminal investigation into Meta.
It alleged that the company's actions following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year amounted to inciting violence against Russians.
Russians accessing social media via VPNs
After Russian troops moved into Ukraine, Stone announced temporary changes to Meta’s hate speech policy to allow for "forms of political expression that would normally violate (its) rules, like violent speech such as 'death to the Russian invaders'".
In the same statement, Stone added that "credible calls for violence against Russian civilians" would remain banned.
Mediazona on Sunday claimed that an unspecified Russian court issued an arrest warrant earlier this month for Stone on charges of "facilitating terrorism".
The report didn't specify the source of that information, which couldn't be independently verified.
Western social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter) were popular with young Russians before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but have since been blocked in the country as part of a broad crackdown on independent media and other forms of critical speech.
They are now only accessible via Virtual Private Network (VPN).
In April 2022, Russia also formally barred Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg from entering the country.
