More than 10 convictions a day: Russia steps up use of ‘terrorism’ charges

On average, more than 10 people were convicted under Russia’s ‘terrorism’ provisions on each working day during the first half of 2026, according to new research by First Department and Parubets Analytics. In 2025, the average was eight convictions per working day.

During the first six months of 2026, Russian courts handed down at least 1,145 convictions involving 1,234 defendants under Articles 205–205.5 of the Russian Criminal Code. The number of people convicted was 38% higher than during the same period in 2025, when 892 people were convicted. The number of convictions increased even more sharply, rising by 58%, with the pace of growth accelerating in the second quarter.

Among people charged under just one of these ‘terrorism’ provisions, more than half (53.8%) were convicted of public calls for terrorism or public justification of terrorism (Article 205.2). This marks an increase from the first half of 2025, when the figure stood at 41.3%. By contrast, convictions under Article 205 itself, covering the offence of committing a terrorist act, became less common, accounting for 20.6% of cases compared with 38.3% during the first half of 2025. This largely reflects the fact that, in 2025, Russian courts tried large numbers of Ukrainian service personnel captured in the Kursk region under that provision.

In cases involving two or more ‘terrorism’ charges, the most common combination was undergoing training for the purpose of carrying out terrorist activities (Article 205.3) together with participation in a terrorist community (Article 205.4). At least 174 people were convicted under both provisions simultaneously. Such charges are also commonly used against current and former Ukrainian service personnel who served in military units that the Russian authorities designate as terrorist organisations.

As in 2025, approximately two thirds of the names of those convicted have been concealed in the databases of Russia’s military courts. In March 2026, the Southern District Military Court concealed information relating to 1,080 cases in a single day.

Political Prisoners Memorial has added 427 people convicted under Russia’s ‘terrorism’ provisions during the first half of the year to its database of people deprived of their liberty in cases showing clear signs of political motivation. This represents around one third of all those convicted under these provisions and is a conservative estimate of the scale of politically motivated prosecutions: the database is updated as new information becomes available and includes only cases for which at least some information about the underlying circumstances is available.

At least one of the 427 people received a life sentence, while 396 were sentenced to terms of imprisonment. Sentence lengths are known for 359 of them. The median prison sentence was 13 years.

The shortest prison sentence imposed under the ‘terrorism’ provisions during the first half of the year was one year, given to Andrey Voynov, who wrote that he considered it acceptable to set fire to a railway signalling cabinet in exchange for money.

The longest sentence imposed in a single case was 28 years, handed down to Artyom Kharin, who, according to investigators, enlisted in the Russian army in order to pass intelligence to the Ukrainian side before surrendering to Ukrainian forces.

At least 168 of the 427 people in Political Prisoners Memorial’s database (39.3%) are Ukrainian citizens. The authors of the study identified a further 75 Ukrainian citizens convicted under Russia’s ‘terrorism’ provisions in 2026. Russian courts therefore convicted at least 243 Ukrainian citizens on ‘terrorism’-related charges during the first half of the year.