On 31 March 2025, a court in Moscow sentenced exiled journalist Ekaterina Fomina to 8.5 years of prison in absentia on charges of disseminating what Russian authorities claim is “fake news” about the war in Ukraine.
Prior to this, in January 2024, Russia’s state-controlled news agency TASS reported that authorities had opened a criminal case against Fomina, who previously worked with independent outlet iStories.
The motive for the case was an interview that the journalist conducted in August 2022 with Russian soldier Daniil Frolkin. In the interivew, Frolkin admitted to the murder of a civilian in the village of Andriivka near Kyiv, and also named commanders, who he claimed gave orders to shoot civilians.
Following this, a case was opened against the Russian soldier, on charges of disseminating “fake news” about the Russian army. He later received a suspended sentence of five and a half years in prison.
In a comment to the Russian service of the BBC, Fomina denounced the situation, saying that Russians “already have no access to independent media” and that authorities are “working to denigrate journalists, so that even those who remained [in Russia] and continue to write about life [in the country] are not believed”.
For a total of nine years, Fomina published for Moscow-based independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta. She started working with iStories in 2020. The following year, Russian authorities declared the media outlet a “foreign agent,” and a year later, an “undesirable organization,” introducing lengthy prison sentences for Russians who continued collaborating with the outlet. Fomina left Russia after the adoption of this decision.
UPDATE: On 17 June 2024, a court in Moscow arrested Fomina in absentia under article 207.3.2 of Russia’s Criminal Code, claiming that she had disseminated “fake news” on the war in Ukraine out of “political hatred”.