On 17 June 2026, a court in Magadan sentenced in absentia Andrey Grishin, former editor-in-chief of the independent outlet Vesma, and former Vesma journalist Kirill Belokurov to prison terms, Russian independent media reported.
Grishin was sentenced to six and a half years in a general-regime penal colony, while Belokurov was sentenced to five years and seven months. The case was brought under charges of spreading what Russian authorities claim is “fake” information about the Russian army, as well as for evading obligations imposed on “foreign agents”.
According to Russian legislation, any information on the war in Ukraine based on reporting other than that by official Russian sources is considered “fake news”, with penalties for violation reaching up to 15 years in prison.
Investigators claimed that in November 2022 Grishin published “knowingly false information” about the use of the Russian Armed Forces “based on political hatred”. Investigators also claimed that Grishin and Belokurov later disseminated information in news messengers about an incident in Ukraine which Russian authorities described as false. The exact publications at the center of the case were not specified.