On 10 July 2025, Russian independent media reported that Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) had opened a criminal case against Russian journalists Petr Ivanov and Ruslan Terekhov, on charges of illegally crossing the Russian border. Both journalists work for exiled media outlet SOTA.
The charges were formulated following a reporting trip by Ivanov and Terekhov to Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk region, which Ukrainian forces were in control of between August 2024 and March 2025.
Similar criminal cases were earlier opened against foreign reporters who traveled to Sudzha for reporting work. If found guilty, Ivanov and Terekhov would face a sentence of up to five years in prison in absentia according to Russia’s criminal code.
The decision to open a criminal case against the reporters came after the end a Ukrainian military offensive in Russia’s Kursk region, in the course of which Ukraine controlled a number Russian settlements near its border for several months. Ukrainian and international journalists traveled to the area to report on the situation while it was under Ukrainian control.
Since August 2024, Russian authorities initiated identical proceedings against at least 14 other foreign journalists who reported from Sudzha, according to IPI monitoring.