Up to ten years in a penal colony for young men incited to commit arson by a female FSB agent, and twelve years for a young female courier over links to the Freedom of Russia Legion
Read our overview of these and other cases of political prisoners we have recognised last week
In January 2023, Ivan Blagodatskikh, Ilya Kudinov, and Akhmed Ramaldanov were detained in Rostov-on-Don. They had been planning to set fire to a military recruitment office in protest against the war in Ukraine. With them was an acquaintance participating in what the FSB described as an ‘operational experiment’. She was released shortly afterwards. They were charged with attempting to carry out a terrorist attack. Blagodatskikh and Kudinov were subsequently also charged with inducing others to engage in terrorist activity. The court sentenced the three young men to between eight and ten years’ imprisonment.
Sofia Lepyoshkina worked as a courier in Serpukhov, Moscow Oblast. She wrote calls to join the Freedom of Russia Legion and to fight ‘Rashism’ — on pavements and on her Instagram account. She also sent the Legion an application to join and a photograph of a weapons factory. Lepyoshkina was detained in September 2024. On charges of participation in a terrorist organisation, inducing others to participate in its activities, and public incitement to terrorism, she was sentenced to twelve years in a penal colony.
Igor Gerter, a former firefighter from the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, was serving a sentence in a penal colony when he signed a contract with the Ministry of Defence. He then allegedly planned to surrender to Ukrainian forces and join the Russian Volunteer Corps. Immediately upon arriving at the front in April 2024, he was detained, held in a basement for two months and tortured, before being charged with preparing to participate in a terrorist organisation and inducing another former convict to do the same.
Denny Soloshchenko, a mixed martial arts fighter from Barnaul, was arrested in February 2026 on charges of facilitating terrorist activity. He allegedly gathered, together with accomplices, 24 million roubles, which were then transferred in cryptocurrency to an account used to finance the Ukrainian armed forces, including units designated as terrorist organisations in Russia.
Yegor Geraimovich from Khabarovsk was detained in August 2024 on charges of publicly advocating terrorism, over emotional comments in support of Ukraine. Later, after he complained that money was continuing to be taken from his account via his confiscated phone, he was additionally charged with distributing pornography, for forwarding videos to friends, and disseminating ‘military fakes’. The court sentenced Geraimovich to seven years in a penal colony.
Aleksandr Levchishin worked as a programmer at a hospital in Irkutsk Oblast. He was arrested in July 2023 and accused of copying information from an internal database and sending to Ukraine details of two Russian servicemen allegedly involved in crimes in Bucha. He was subsequently also charged with donating towards the purchase of an ambulance for the Ukrainian armed forces. On charges of interfering with critical information infrastructure and state treason, Levchishin was sentenced to fourteen years in a high-security penal colony.
Serhii Petryk, a paediatrician, moved after 2014 from Makiivka to the village of Nikolske near Mariupol, which remained under Ukrainian control. He continued to work there after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russian security forces took an interest in him on several occasions. In autumn 2024, Petrik was arrested on charges of state treason. He was detained at the courthouse, immediately after being given a suspended sentence in a separate case and released from custody. According to the FSB, the doctor had cooperated with the SBU, including by disclosing the location of a Russian military unit, which he had learned from a serviceman during a medical appointment. The court sentenced Petrik to fifteen and a half years in a high-security penal colony.
You can read more about these cases, including addresses to write to the political prisoners, on our website.
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