Aleksey Seregin, a journalist covering local issues in Russia’s west-central Mari El Republic, has been detained since June 4, 2026, on charges of “justifying terrorism.” He faces up to seven years in jail under Part 2, Article 205.2 of Russia’s criminal code.
Since 2017, Seregin has been running the Telegram channel, Nothing Will Happen in Mari El, which has over 860 subscribers and covers local issues, including trials, corruption, human rights, and the environment, as well as updates about local residents who have died in Russia’s war in Ukraine. Seregin previously worked with multiple regional media outlets.
Law enforcement officers in Yoshkar-Ola, the capital of Mari El, detained Seregin after beating him, confiscating his phone, and searching his home. The authorities took him for questioning to the local branch of Russia’s Investigative Committee, the law enforcement agency in charge of pretrial investigations.
On June 5, a court in Yoshkar-Ola placed him in a pretrial detention center.
According to independent news outlet 7×7, a regional newsroom, Seregin is being prosecuted for “justifying terrorism” because of a 2024 comment in a Telegram chat about former Soviet air force general Dzhokhar Dudayev, who led the Chechen independence movement in the 1990s and was killed in 1996. The authorities claimed the comment “justified illegal armed groups in Chechnya in the 1990s.”
A source familiar with Seregin’s case told CPJ on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal that his detention is retaliation for his journalism.
“He is the only journalist in the republic who is active both in the media and in civil society,” a local activist from Mari El had told Idel.Realii, the Tatar-Bashkir service of U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) on condition of anonymity, in a November 2025 interview.
Over recent years, Seregin has repeatedly faced repression for his journalism and civic activities. The Russian Ministry of Justice designated Seregin a “foreign agent” in November 2024. In September 2025, he was fined 30,000 rubles (US$380) for failing to list his designation.
CPJ’s call for comment to Russia’s Investigative Committee’s branch in Mari El in early June went unanswered.