en.zona

“We’ll send you to your cozy Gulag”. Russian asylum seekers join hunger strike in Georgia ICE facility describing neglect and threats in long detention

Russian asylum seekers, some held without charge for more than two years, are among dozens of detainees on hunger strike at a ...
en.zona

“Hollywood or nightmare”. How a Ukrainian refugee accidentally learned of her estranged father’s treason arrest in Russia while scrolling Instagram

In August, Mediazona broke the story of Oleg Varyukhin, the man charged with treason in Russia for paying mandatory taxes as a small business owner in Ukraine. Now, his estranged ...
en.zona

A rare retreat. Russian investigators suddenly drop “fake news about the army” criminal case against children’s hospice founder Lida Moniava

Russian authorities have dropped the criminal case alleging the spread of “fake news about the army” against Lida Moniava, ...
en.zona

From American detention to Russian prison. After asylum rejection, Leonid Melekhin received a 6‑year sentence in Russia for hanging a Putin mannequin

Photo of Melekhin crossing the U.S. border posted by “Bobr. There and Back Again (An Immigration Diary)”, a Telegram channel A military court in Yekaterinburg has sentenced Leonid Melekhin, an ...
en.zona

“They are waiting for me to die”. Crimean political prisoner Lenur Khalilov was released because of his cancer—and then returned to prison

Lenur Khalilov, the 58-year-old former head of the independent Muslim community “Alushta”—sentenced to 18 years in prison for ...
en.zona

From election monitoring to a prison hospital. Russian political scientist Alexander Kynev sustained two tibia fractures after arrest on drug charges

Moscow’s Perovsky District Court sent prominent Russian political scientist Alexander Kynev to pre-trial detention on large-scale drug charges following an arrest where he was ...
en.zona

Four years of “partial” mobilisation. New data reveals the fates of Russia‘s mobilised men

Today marks the fourth anniversary of the “partial” mobilisation. Announced by Vladimir Putin in September 2022 following a series of military setbacks on the battlefield, the decree triggered the ...
en.zona

Further from God. Prosecution requests 7.5 years for a preacher who sheltered men from mobilisation but was charged over a Prigozhin repost

A prosecutor at the Central District Military Court in Yekaterinburg has requested a 7.5-year prison sentence for Protestant preacher Eduard Charov, his wife told Mediazona. Charov, 54, is known for ...
en.zona

“Undeniably political”. Celebrated food historian Pavel Syutkin sentenced to 6 years in Moscow over posts against the war in Ukraine

A Moscow court sent prominent Russian food historian Pavel Syutkin who once officially represented the country at a world fair has been sentenced to prison for six years on charges of spreading “fake ...
en.zona

Cases of forced deployment to the front are multiplying. Mediazona compiles known incidents

Last week, we learned that St. Petersburg resident Vitaly Smidovich had died in Ukraine. The man, who suffered from epileptic seizures, was lured with an offer to repair houses damaged by drones, ...