For many years, Aleksandr Kondratov worked as a production designer in the Russian and Ukrainian film industries; he received both a "Golden Eagle" award and a TEFI award for his work on the 2007 television series Liquidation. From around 2012, he lived in Kyiv with his family. In the spring of 2026, he traveled to the Russian Federation to renew his international passport and was detained at the airport. Following more than 70 days of consecutive, short-term administrative detentions—a practice often referred to as "carousel" arrests—a court remanded him to a pre-trial detention center on charges of high treason, based on six posts he had made online. On October 23, 2026, Kondratov was transferred from the detention center to Botkin Hospital in Moscow. His death was reported on October 26. According to unofficial information, the cause of death was a heart attack.
