Arctic geese specialist Sofya Rozenfeld sentenced to three and a half years over donations to Anti-Corruption Foundation

A Moscow court has sentenced Sofya Rozenfeld, a 50-year-old scientist and specialist on Arctic waterfowl, to three and a half years in a general-regime penal colony on charges of financing an ‘extremist’ organisation over two donations to the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), founded by Alexei Navalny. She was taken into custody in the courtroom, Mediazona reports.

Judge Dzhemal Kurbanov of the Gagarinsky District Court of Moscow handed down the sentence on 7 October. Prosecutors had asked for five years.

Sofya was charged over two transfers of 1,000 roubles (about €10) each, made to FBK in August and September 2021, after the foundation had been designated ‘extremist’ in June 2021. She told the court that she was on a long scientific expedition without communication at the time, and that she cancelled her subscription as soon as she learned of the foundation’s status. Her lawyers added to the case file the letter in which she asked FBK to stop the monthly payments.

Sofya partly admitted guilt. She confirmed that she had subscribed to the donations, but denied sharing extremist views or having criminal intent.

‘I categorically do not accept, firstly, that I share extremist views and, secondly, that there was any criminal intent,’ she told the court. ‘When I decided to start supporting FBK, I was guided solely by the aim of fighting corruption. Even in my own work…’

‘Don’t we have law enforcement agencies for that?’ the judge interrupted.

‘I believe that help from the public, of any kind, is needed here,’ Sofya replied. ‘Because even in my own work, in scientific research and conservation, I have seen the monstrous forms this evil can take. And it seemed to me that any help in the fight against corruption would be a good thing.’

Her lawyer, Alkhas Abgadzhava, asked the court to drop the case. He argued that the five years requested pointed to a flaw in both the case and the provision under which Sofya was charged, and that the prosecution was using the length of the term to cover its own uncertainty. He said she posed no real danger to society. ‘Not only is she not dangerous, she is useful, Your Honour,’ he told the court.

Sofya is a Doctor of Biological Sciences and a senior researcher at the A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences. She is one of Russia’s leading specialists on Arctic waterfowl. She travels on long expeditions across the Arctic with pilot Georgiy Kirtayev, covering hundreds of kilometres in a seaplane he built himself, photographing and counting birds and studying their migration routes.

She has also criticised proposed amendments to Russia’s wildlife law that would add a new ground for killing species listed in the country’s Red Book. In 2024, she toldKommersant that hunters could use the change to obtain permits to shoot rare animals for ‘scientific purposes’. ‘There has been no need to shoot animals for research for a long time,’ she said.