Afanasiev Mikhail Vyacheslavovich

Afanasiev Mikhail Vyacheslavovich, born July 12, 1976. Lives in Abakan, Khakassia. Has five underaged children, four of whom are under 14. Editor-in-chief of the Khakass newspaper "Novy Fokus" [New Focus]. He is a two-time winner of the Andrei Sakharov Prize "For Journalism as an Act" and the first foreign laureate of the Swedish Publicists' Club Prize.

On charges of committing a crime under paragraph "a" of Part 2 of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation by a group of persons using their official position", liable to up to 10 years' imprisonment), he was sentenced to 5.5 years' imprisonment in a general regime penal colony. On December 18, 2023, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Khakassia upheld the sentence.

Deprived of liberty since April 13, 2022.