Local freelance journalist Svetlana Khustik has been detained since late September 2025 on charges of spreading “fake” news about the Russian army. She faces up to 10 years in jail under Part 2, Article 207.3 of the criminal code.
On September 30, 2025, a court in the east-central city of Krasnoyarsk placed Khustik under arrest for two months, pending investigation. She had been detained in the early morning of September 29.
According to the authorities, who posted a video of the journalist being detained after a search of her home in Krasnoyarsk, Khustik had published an interview in May 2023 that contained “fake” news about the Russian army in an online media outlet the government calls a “foreign agent” in exchange for 64,000 rubles ($775). Russian state news agency TASS said the outlet was Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Siberia-focused project, Sibir.Realii.
The Russian Ministry of Justice added RFE/RL to its foreign agents register in 2017. During her court hearing, Khustik confirmed that she had worked with the outlet until 2023, but said she stopped after authorities labeled it “undesirable” in February 2024. According to independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, the charges against Khustik stem from an editor’s note in the May 2023 interview about a Russian missile killing 23 people in the central Ukrainian city of Uman on April 28, 2023.
In the last few years, Khustik has covered the environment, culture, and social issues for a range of outlets, including independent news websites Takie Dela and Kedr.
Khustik is reportedly being held in Pretrial Detention Center No. 1 in Krasnoyarsk, according to human rights group Memorial.
CPJ did not receive a response to its September 2025 request for comment sent via email to the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia for Krasnoyarsk Krai and the Republic of Khakassia.