On 18 December 2025, a Russian military court in the Eastern Military District sentenced Anna Zueva, a journalist from the region of Buryatia currently in exile, to six years of prison in absentia on charges of “justifying terrorism”and violating Russia’s foreign agent legislation.
Russian authorities alleged that Zueva’s June 2025 posting of a video, which was published on her Telegram channel “Anna Zueva” and the associated YouTube channel, amounted to public endorsement of a Ukrainian drone strike on a Russian air regiment, and thus constituted “justification of terrorism.” The court also ruled that she breached Russia’s ‘foreign agent’ obligations by publishing content without proper labelling. Zueva was assigned the ‘foreign agent’ status in October 2024 and has faced prior administrative penalties for non-compliance with ‘foreign agent’ legislation.
In addition to the prison term, the ruling prohibits Zueva from publishing any online content or administering sites, channels, chats or groups for a period of three years.