Sergey Karelin, a freelance videographer who has worked for the Associated Press news agency and German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW), is serving a 5.5-year prison sentence after he was convicted on extremism charges in April 2025.
Russian authorities detained Karelin in the northern region of Murmansk on April 26, 2024, and courts placed him and freelance journalist Konstantin Gabov, who was detained in Moscow on April 27, in a two-month pretrial detention, which was then extended several times.
Karelin and Gabov, who has also worked for several international news outlets, were charged with participating in an extremist organization for allegedly preparing videos for Navalny LIVE, a YouTube channel run by supporters of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in prison in February 2024. Karelin and Gabov denied the charges.
The charges are punishable by up to six years in prison under Article 282.1, Part 2 of Russia’s criminal code. CPJ was unable to determine exactly what materials the men were accused of producing.
In September 2024, Karelin and Gabov’s cases were sent to court and combined with the cases against SOTAvision journalists Artyom Krieger and Antonina Favorskaya, who were also accused of cooperating with Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK). The trial of the four journalists began October 2, 2024 behind closed doors.
On April 15, 2025, Favorskaya, Krieger, Gabov, and Karelin were all sentenced by a Moscow court to five years and six months in prison on extremism charges. The court also banned them from publishing any content on the internet for three years after they complete their prison sentences.
In April 2025, CPJ filled out an online form requesting comment on the charges from the Moscow branch of Russia’s Investigative Committee for comment but received no response.