By Darina Boykova
Besides illegal invasion and annexation of Ukraine, Russia has been cracking down on its own residents: fining, jailing, and persecuting people for opinions, expressions, and actions allowed under international law. This article is part of a monthly series of reports of human rights violations committed by the Russian state; it encapsulates actions relating to political prisoners, legal actions towards Ukrainian prisoners of war, LGTBQA+ crackdown, legal actions violating freedom of expression and more. The main source of information is MediaZona articles, translated to bring awareness of the injustices to English speakers. The Russians are continuing to stand up against the state and are punished for it.
For concerns, issues, and possible additions to the list, please email Darina.Boykova@rcda.ca.
Here is a recap of human rights violations that took place in Russia in August of 2025:
Poor Treatment of Prisoners and Arrestees
Torture or death while arrested
At least 70 people have been killed by intelligence forces (ФСБ) during arrests on occupied territories since 2022.
56 year old Oleg Kuryaev, who was arrested for treason, shared of physical force, torture with the use of electroshock device, and two months of sequential arrests that he endured.
Video surfaced of a man being beaten up by men in law enforcement uniform while getting arrested.
Mother of one of the teenagers arrested for setting fire to the forest shared of the abuse her son endured during arrest. Her son was held in isolation, was tortured with shocks, and was physically abused.
Poor Treatment of Political Prisoners
Darya Trepova, who was sentenced to 27 years for an explosion that killed a pre-war blogger, was placed on strict conditions for a year, according to her husband. The strict condition only allow three short and three long meetings a year.
Journalist Maria Ponomarenko’s lawyer shared that Ponomarenko, tried to commit suicide in prison three times. According to her lawyer, the last prison that Ponomarenko was kept it was infested with rats and had constant noise from construction. She was also transferred to a tuberculosis hospital. You can read more about Maria and send her a letter here.
The wife of Bakhrom Khamroev shared that Khamroev was transferred to the Polar Owl prison that is meant for prisoners who are imprisoned for life. You can read more about Bakhrom, join his blog, and write him a letter here.
Activist Darya Polyudova was attacked by a fellow prisoner, who tried to choke her. Previously Polyudova shared of verbal abuse that she endured from other prisoners. You can read more about Darya, and write her a letter here.
Nadezda Rossinskaya shared of deteriorating health, and lack of outdoor walks, medical assistance, and meetings with parents. The staff stopped passing her books and makeup from parcels that are delivered to her. You can read more about Nadezda here.
Poor Treatment of Ukrainian Prisoners
Ukrainian prosecutors office announced that a pre-trial detention center in Russia tortures Ukrainian nationals. According to the prosecutors office, Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roschyna, after being detained my the Russian military, was “subjected to systemic torture, beatings, humiliation, threats, severe restrictions on access to medical care, drinking water and food,” and passed away. The body of the journalist was returned to family 5 months later, with missing organ parts. Other Ukraine nationals shared of the torture they endured in the same detention center.
Andrey Sopulyak, who was sentenced to 19 years shared that he spent 3 years in Russian prison before there was a case against him after being captured in 2022.
Legal Action for Conversations in Prison
Incarcerated Sergey Chistyakov was fined 30,000 rubles (approx. $500) for critiquing Russia’s illegal invasion onto Ukraine with a cellmate.
Fines
Fines for Books
Director of a children’s library Raisa Naumova was fined 20,000 rubles (approx. $350) for a library book about nature that mentioned World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which has been categorized as “undesirable.”
Fines for Discreditation
Graduate student Zuleyha Ismailova who taught at school was fired and fined 60,000 rubles (approx. $1,000) for discrediting Russian Forces. She posted on Russian social media Vkontakte about Russian soldiers who murdered a family of nine, including two children in their home in Donetsk Oblast while trying to acquire alcohol. In 2024, those soldiers were sentenced to life in prison.
Café owner Oksana Zhmailo was fined 30,000 rubles (approx. $500) under the charge of discreditation for a photo of a Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usik and a protein smoothie on the menu named after the boxer. Usik continuously supported residence of Donetsk People’s Republic and shared his antiwar stance.
Mikhail (Misha) Verbitsky was fined 35,000 rubles (approx. $600) under the charge of discreditation. It was not shared which actions lead to the charge.
Viktor Zichenko was fined 50,000 rubles (approx. $850) under the same charge for painting words “No War” on walls, posts, and fences seven times.
31 year old woman was removed from a train and fined 30,000 rubles (approx. $500) for celebrating Ukrainian drone attack onto a train station, saying “serves you right, Russians.”
Fines for Other Online Actions, Comments, and Posts
78 year old Larisa Kuznetsova was fined 320,000 rubles (approx. $5,500) under the charge of justifying terrorism for VKontakte comments celebrating Darya Trepova. Trepova is currently jailed for setting off a bomb in a café that killed pro-kremlin blogger Vladen Tatarsky.
Georgy Bugaits was fined 500,000 rubles (approx. $8,500) under the charge of calls to terrorism for urging people to attack Russian leadership and to destroy air forces in messaging chat.
Deputy Director of Yeltsin Presidential Center Ludmila Telen was fined 45,000 rubles (approx. $750) for reposting a “No To War” post on Facebook.
33 year old woman was fined 1,000 rubles (approx. $20) for mentioning Hitler while commenting on new school uniform standard in VKontakte.
A man was fined 5,000 rubles (approx. $85) for a conversation on Twitter with an activist Mikhail Pletnev, which the court deemed as “participation in an undesirable organization.” Pletnev is connected to the “undesirable” Free Russia Foundation.
Political scientist Irina Busygina was fined under the same charge for a discussion about the BRICS Summit in Russia that was posted on Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).
Political scientists Pavel Luzin, Ivan Fomin, Mikhail Komin, and journalist Ksenia Kirillova were fined 10,000 rubles each (approx. $200) for publications on the CEPA’s website, which was categorized as “undesirable.”
Former journalist of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Ivan Belyaev was fined 5,000 (approx. $85) for failing to remove his materials from the website of the media company which is categorized as “undesirable.”
Fines Connected to "Undesirable Organizations" and "Foreign Agents"
Vasiliy Cependa, former legislator, was fined 5,000 rubles (approx. $85) for participation in an “undesirable organization”. The charge was based on Cependa’s repost of Committee – 2024 (объединения «Комитет‑2024») post on Facebook that announced endless global initiative in aid of Ukraine.
Founder of opposition channels “Stop War Crimes” and “Putin’s GULAG” Dmitriy Velikiy was fined 5,000 rubles (approx. $85) under the charge of participating in an “undesirable organization” for posts citing media outlets Meduza, The Moscow Times, The Insider, and SOTAproject, all of which are declared as “undesirable”.
Editor in Chief of Meduza Ivan Kolpakov was fined an unknown sum under the same charge. Meduza was categorized as undesirable in Russia in 2023. Evidence against Kolpakov also included his interview that he gave to another “undesirable” media company Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) in 2021
Anatoly Nogovitsin, chairman of the Yabloko party in Yakutia, was fined 5,000 rubles (approx. $85) under the same charge for posting his interview that he gave to Dozhd («Дождь») TV in 2021. The TV channel was categorized as undesirable 2 years after the interview.
75 year old president of the Far-Eastern Shipmasters’ Associations Petr Osichanskiy was fined 20,000 rubles (approx. $350) under the above charge for a mention of International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) which was declared as “undesirable” on the website.
Marina Maksakova was fined 5,000 rubels (approx. $85) for a connection with the “undesirable” Free Russia Foundation.
Farmer Andrey Proshakov, who left Russia, was fined 30,000 rubles (approx. $500) for failing to indicate that his posted links lead to materials produced by “foreign agents”.
Yulia Yarosh, former editor of Open Media, was fined 300,000 rubles (approx. $5,000) for failing to submit three “foreign agent” reports.
Imprisonment
Imprisonment for Donations
Former employee of Yandex Sergey Irin was sentenced to 15 years for donating 500 dollars to the Come Back Alive Foundation in 2022. At this trial, Irin held up a sign that read “Putin is a dickhead.”
Imprisonment/Community Work for Internet Content
Dmitriy Orlov was sentenced to 3 years for posting posts such as:
“I am also from Russia. [I] wish that Putinism would shamefully fall, carry the largest losses in history, was deweaponized, and put on its knees. And for everyone who will remain, [we need] to show 24/7 365 days a year all crimes of Putinism. [We need] to execute all those involved, and show it all to patriots, so the desire to attack anyone would disappear for 150 or so years.”
Vladimir Mitrofanov was sentenced to 9.5 years for posts stating that “Russian enemies are in Kremlin” and “Beauty!!! Combat mosquitoes are on it,” referring to Ukrainian forces.
57 year old with health issues Olga Ogarkova was sentenced to 5 years for posts that contained disrespectful statements towards Russians and supported Ukrainian attacks on Russia.
56 year old Evgenia Kumpan was sentenced to 3 years for comments that call for a destruction of the drone factory under a Geran drone video.
Blogger Ilya Varlamov was sentenced in absentia to 8 years for a YouTube video where he shared of deaths, injuries, and infrastructure damage that came after Russian rockets hit residential buildings in two Ukrainian cities.
55 year old Sergey Fomov was sentenced to 6 years for a comment “Putin to gallows with his helpers,” and comments that called РДК “real men.”
19 year old student Vladislav Timofeev was sentenced to 2.5 years for comments that supported the Russia Volunteer Corps and the Azov Brigade. One of his comments said:
“No one is fighting for some sort of power. Ukrainians are fighting for the freedom of their nation, for higher ideals and timeless values, for their coordinate system against slavish yoke and Kremlin horde, that came onto the Slavic lands to murder while people. Russians in РДК are also fighting for freedom, for their homeland. The same thing with Belarussians. Those who want the freedom of the nation, also fight for Ukraine. There are no other choices here. РДК is the only Russian position – there are no others.”
Artist Irina Bystrova was sentenced to 4 years of conditional sentence for posts on VKontakte that discussed Russian rockets hitting Ukraine. In court, Karelian artist shared:
“I was raised in the Soviet Union, and they taught us very different things in school – that we need to support friendship between nations and to be against wars… I want to teach children, so they will be bright, kind, humaine. Your Honour, I did not do anything bad. I did not take anyone’s life, did not rape, did not steal.”
Nataliya Doroschenko was sentenced to 5.5 years for comments like “I am against the war” and “they [Ukrainians] are protecting their homeland.”
Pavel Plahin was ordered 40 hours of community work for a comment on Telegram that said “[we] need to burn the Kremlin, the White House, all institutions where those … sit.”
Imprisonment of Ukrainian Nationals/Residents
Irina Zaitseva, who resides in occupied Luhansk People’ Republic (ЛНР), was sentenced to 12 years for passing information about locations of Russian military personal to Ukrainian special forces.
Resident of the occupied Luhansk People’ Republic (ЛНР), was sentenced to 17 years for passing military information to Ukrainian Forces. The court explained it as a “sense of false patriotism.”
42 year old mother and 24 year old daughter that reside in annexed Crimea were sentenced to 12 years for sending photos of objects of Russian Forces to Ukrainian representatives.
20 year old Ukrainian resident of the occupied region Darya Kulik was sentenced to 18 years and a fine of 600,000 rubles (approx. $10,000) for cooperating with Ukrainian Forces and preparing materials for Molotov cocktail.
Imprisonment of Ukrainian Soldiers and Prisoners of War
Ukrainian prisoners of war Ivan Perepelitse and Alexandr Matviichuk were sentenced to 20 and 13 years respectably under the charges of participating in a terroristic organization. Both were captured in December 2024.
Imprisonment for Treason
The charge of treason has been used widely in Russia to punish people’s opinions and moral standings. In some cases, the actions of people are stretched to apply to the charge.
Yuriy Boiko was sentenced to 17 years under the charge of treason. According to the investigation, Boiko communicated with the Ukrainian Forces and was planning to join them.
Sergey Loktev was sentenced to 5 years for sending pictures of cars with a Z symbol to Ukraine representatives.
Vitaly Grechishkin was sentenced to 18 years for cooperating with and passing information to Ukrainian Special Forces.
54 year old engineer was sentenced to 13.5 years for passing information concerning location of military machinery.
19 year old man was sentenced to 6 years for passing information of the location of military objects to Ukrainian Forces.
Imprisonment for Arson
There has been a trend among young people to set fire to infrastructure that could be used by the Russian forces in order to advance their military position. A common target is railway signaling control boxes that pause the use of trains. Russian courts charge the young people with terrorism even though the most they do is delay the trains, failing to be proportional to the crime.
A man was sentenced to 12 years for setting fire to a cell phone tower and a military helicopter as a protest against the war in Ukraine.
26 year old Alina Grek was sentenced to 15 years for cooperating with the Ukrainian Intelligence Service and preparing to set fire to a railway signaling control box.
18 year old man was sentenced to 6 years for setting fire to a railway signaling control box.
17 year old teen was sentenced to 6 years of correctional services for setting fire to two railway signaling control boxes.
Imprisonment Relating to Freedom of Russia Legion and Russia Volunteer Corps (РДК)
30 year old woman was sentenced to 14 years and a fine of 300,000 rubles (approx. $5,000) for crossing a border in an attempt to join Russia Volunteer Corps.
28 year old with a disability and neuralgia Yuri Shlyonkin was sentenced to 3 years for leaving comments in Telegram mentioning Freedom of Russia Legion and Russia Volunteer Corps.
Teacher Daniila T. was sentenced to 18 years for communicating with the Freedom of Russia Legion and planning to set fire to the drone factory.
Sentences Relating to "Foreign Agents"
Olga Tsukanova was sentenced to a year and seven months of community work for failing to adhere to the “foreign agents” laws. Tsukanova is the founder of Council of Mothers and Wives – an organization for relatives of mobilized personnel, which ended its work after it was declared a “foreign agent.”
Continued Crackdown on the LGTBQA+ Community
Russian manga website Mangalib was fined 14 million rubles (approx. $240,000) and its manager Ivan Kvast was fined 600,000 rubles (approx. $10,000) under the charge of “LGTBQA+ propaganda” for publishing seven LGTBQA+ mangas.
Foreigner Zafar Sharipov was deported and fined 100,000 rubles (approx. $1,700) for a video depicting “non-traditional sexual relations and preferences” on a Russian social media Odnoklasniki.
Journalist Vadim Vaganov was fined 100,000 rubles (approx. $1,700) for a post urging to fight homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia.
Movie streaming platform Kinopoisk was fined 3 million rubles (approx. $50,200). This is the third time the platform has been fined under the charge of “LGTBQA+ propaganda.”
Legal Actions Connected to The Anti-Corruption Foundation
The Anti-Corruption Foundation, established by Alexei Navalny, was categorized as “extremist” by the Russian state in 2021. Since then, Russian citizens faced legal repercussions for supporting the foundation.
Mediazona shared that there has been at least 76 cases opened for donations to the ACF.
Fines for Donations to the Anti-Corruption Foundation
- Pavel Bobovnikov was fined 500,000 rubles (approx. $8,400) for donating 6,000 rubles (approx. $8,400).
- A man was fined 500,000 rubles (approx. $8,400) for donating 14,000 rubles (approx. $240).
- 69 year old Andrey Kuzhelev was fined 500,000 rubles (approx. $8,400) for donating 13,000 rubles (approx. $220).
Imprisonment Relating to the Anti-Corruption Foundation
Moscow court confirmed a 3.5 year sentence for Victor Levakov for a donation of 3,500 rubles (approx. $60).
Addition to Wanted List Relating to the Anti-Corruption Foundation
Sergey Tveritin, who left Russia, was added to a wanted list for donating 2,000 rubles (approx. $35).
Additions to the Lists by the Russian State
Additions to the Wanted List
Anton Pikuli (Ustimov), who used to host comedic sessions on Navalny LIVE, has been added to a wanted list on unknown charges.
Founder of Omsk Civic Association, which was categorized as “extremist” in 2024, Danila Chebikin was added to the wanted list.
Meduza Journalist Dmitriy Kuznetsov was added to the list.
Aleskandr Agafonov, son of an activist Elena Agafonova, was added to the list after leaving Russia to escape mobilization.
Additions to the "Foreign Agents" List
Journalist Olesya Krivtsov, lawyer Boris Kusnetsov, journalist Evgeny Krotenko, Anatoly Nesmiyan, and activists Yuriy Bobrov and Irina Vezikko, political scientist Sergey Markov, Dmitriy Nyuberg, Andrey Kordochkin, Revolt Center, Mark Solonin, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Mark Krutov, former legislator Igor Rudnikov, Pavel Kanygin’s project “To Be Continued”, economist Andrey Movchan, actress Oksana Misina, journalist Andrey Sivenok, Mihail Doliev were added to the “foreign agents” list.
Additions to the "Undesirable Organizations" List
- ProtectDefender.eu and Civic Solidarity Platform;
- The International Baccalaureate (IB);
- human rights focused Stichting Nederlands Helsinki Comité;
- Stiftung Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft fund focused on reimbursing victims of nazi crimes;
- Reporters Without Borders – organization that fights for press freedom;
- organization of Russian opposition in Germany Demokrati-JA; Helsińska Fundacja Praw Człowieka, human rights fund;
- access to justice organization UNMODE; International House World Organisation – language schools;
- Zimin Foundation focused on assisting individuals categorized as “foreign agents”, “extremists” by the Russian state.
Additions to the Terrorism and Extremism Lists
Alexei Navalny’s book The Patriot was added to the “extremist” list.
Free Russia Forum – platform of Russian opposition – was added to the terrorist list.
Termination of Important Projects
Revolt Center, opened in 2019 to host galleries, concerts, plays, lectures, and seminars has announced its closure after it was categorized as a “foreign agent.” The center is claimed to spread “war fakes,” misinformation about election system, and cooperated with other “foreign agents.”
Arrested and Sentenced in Absentia
Dozhd TV («Дождь») journalist Anna Mongait was arrested in absentia for posting “fakes” concerning the Russian Forces. In 2022 and 2023 posts, Mongait shares of murders of Ukrainian civilians.
Anna Testova, a Ukrainian national, was arrested in absentia under the same charge.
Writer Dmitriy Bykov was arrested in absentia under the same charge as well. He also allegedly failed to adhere to the legal requirements of “foreign agents.”
Former municipal legislator Mariya Solenova who established Action4Life project with Dmitry Zakhvatov was arrested in absentia. Zakhvatov was added to the list in July.
Vasiliy Kiryushchenko, who is fighting in Russian Volunteer Corps in Ukraine, was arrested in absentia under the charge of calls to terrorism.
Former Georgian legislator Aleko Elisashvili, who fought for the Ukrainian side in 2022 and now one of the leaders of the opposition “Strong Georgia” was sentenced in absentia to 6 years under the charge of mercenarism.