diff --git a/MAINTAINERS b/MAINTAINERS
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b9a1dec6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/MAINTAINERS
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+# NRI project maintainers
+#
+# See https://github.com/containerd/project/blob/main/GOVERNANCE.md#maintainership for committer versus reviewer roles
+#
+# Core containerd maintainers are also maintainers of the NRI project,
+# see https://github.com/containerd/project/blob/main/MAINTAINERS
+#
+# COMMITTERS
+# GitHub ID, Name, Email address,GPG fingerprint
+"klihub","Krisztian Litkey","krisztian.litkey@intel.com",""
+#
+# REVIEWERS
+# GitHub ID, Name, Email address, GPG fingerprint
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 17268f3d..a9a25913 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -490,7 +490,7 @@ nri is a containerd sub-project, licensed under the [Apache 2.0 license](./LICEN
 As a containerd sub-project, you will find the:
 
  * [Project governance](https://github.com/containerd/project/blob/main/GOVERNANCE.md),
- * [Maintainers](https://github.com/containerd/project/blob/main/MAINTAINERS),
+ * [Maintainers](./MAINTAINERS),
  * and [Contributing guidelines](https://github.com/containerd/project/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md)
 
 information in our [`containerd/project`](https://github.com/containerd/project) repository.