Yury Belenky is a political prisoner
An IT specialist who had been living in Bulgaria was arrested in Moscow on charges of financing terrorism after allegedly making a transfer to Arkady Babchenko
Yury Belenky worked as an IT director for a Russian company and had lived in Bulgaria with his family since 2015. He periodically travelled to Moscow for work. On 29 September 2025, during another business trip to Russia, he was detained at the airport and placed under arrest on charges of using obscene language in public. After serving the administrative detention, Belenky was detained again. He was beaten and transferred to a pre-trial detention centre in connection with a criminal case, accused of financing terrorism (Part 1.1 of Article 205.1 of the Russian Criminal Code).
According to the investigation, in 2023 Belenky made six cryptocurrency transfers to blogger Arkady Babchenko amounting to a total of 62,000 roubles. The authorities claim that the funds were used to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Azov Regiment.
Arkady Babchenko later stated on his Telegram channel that he had never received any donations from Yury Belenky. He also explained that he raises funds only for medical equipment for rescuers and paramedics.
Moreover, even if Belenky had transferred money to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, this would not constitute financing terrorism. Although the Ukrainian Azov unit has been designated a terrorist organisation in Russia, that designation contradicts international law, since anti-terrorism legislation should not be applied to an armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
We have previously documented cases in which Russian citizens were arrested on politically motivated charges when returning to Russia from abroad. Belenky’s case appears to be one of them.
A detailed description of Yury Belenky’s case and of our position is available on our website.
How can you help?
You can write to Yury Belenky at the following address:
Ru:
127081, г. Москва, ул. Вилюйская, д. 4, ФКУ СИЗО-4 ГУФСИН России по г. Москве, Беленький Юрий Михайлович, 1977 г. р.
En:
Pre-Trial Detention Centre No. 4, Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for Moscow, 4 Vilyuyskaya St., Moscow, 127081, Russia, Belenky Yury Mikhailovich, born 1977.
Please note that letters in languages other than Russian are highly unlikely to reach the intended recipient.
You can also use the services PrisonMail (payment with foreign bank cards), or ZT (for payment with all bank cards), and Memorial-France (free of charge).
You can donate to help all political prisoners in Russia.
