Russian journalist Roman Ivanov is serving a seven-year prison sentence since authorities convicted him in March 2024 on charges of spreading “fake” information about the Russian army. He was detained in April 2023.
Ivanov, a reporter with independent news website RusNews, also manages a Telegram channel, Chestnoe Korolyovskoe, which had about 1,700 subscribers at the time of his arrest. He has posted on local news, politics, and war-related topics, according to CPJ’s review.
Arrest and detention
On April 11, 2023, law enforcement officers in the city of Korolyov, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) northeast of Moscow, detained Ivanov after breaking down his apartment door, searching his apartment, and confiscating his laptop, phones, and video cameras, according to multiple news reports, reports by RusNews, and the outlet’s chief editor Sergey Aynbinder, who spoke to CPJ via email.
Authorities opened three criminal cases against Ivanov related to a post he made on the Russian social media platform Vkontakte and two war-related posts on the Chestnoe Korolyovskoe Telegram channel, according to multiple news reports.
On April 12, 2023, a court in Korolyov ordered Ivanov to be detained until June 10 on the three charges of spreading fake information about the Russian army, according to multiple news reports.
Ivanov denied the charges and said in court that he had been under pressure from the authorities since 2020 because of his work as a journalist.
Authorities also questioned Ivanov’s wife, Maria Nekrasova, and made her sign a non-disclosure agreement, according to interviews with Nekrasova posted by RusNews and independent news website Activatica.
Ivanov’s trial started on October 31, 2023, according to media reports. “I am a journalist, and my job is to provide information to readers. I provide it,” he said during the October 31 hearing.
On March 6, 2024, a court in Korolyov convicted Ivanov on charges of spreading false information about the Russian army. Ivanov was sentenced to seven years in prison, although prosecutors had requested eight years.
In October 2024, Aynbinder told CPJ via email that Ivanov’s mental and physical state was “normal,” that his conditions of detention were “acceptable,” that he was not restricted in his letters, and that he did not have complaints “about health, food, or any improper attitude on the part of other prisoners or prison officers.”
Previously, in September 2022, authorities had detained Ivanov for seven days and fined him 13,000 rubles (US$224) for allegedly participating in an anti-mobilization protest in Korolyov he was covering. A court in the Moscow region later overturned the fine, RusNews reported.
In late 2024, CPJ emailed the press service of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office but did not receive any replies.