Judge Kurbanov handed down the sentence, short of the five years the prosecution had requested, Mediazona reported from the courtroom, according to Current Time.
The criminal case was opened over two transfers of 1,000 rubles each to the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), made in August and September 2021. Rosenfeld told the court she was on a long research expedition without communications at the time and cancelled her subscription as soon as she learned of the foundation's "extremist" status. Her lawyers submitted to the case her letter to the foundation asking it to cancel the monthly payments.
The researcher admitted guilt in part: she did not deny making the donations but insisted she had no intention of supporting extremism.
"I categorically do not admit that I share, firstly, extremist views and, secondly, that this was criminal intent. When I decided to start supporting FBK, I was guided exclusively by considerations of fighting corruption," Rosenfeld said at the hearing, according to Mediazona.
When the researcher explained that she had seen the "monstrous forms" corruption takes, the judge interrupted her with a question about whether law enforcement agencies existed to fight it. Rosenfeld replied that, in her opinion, "any public help here will be needed."
The defense asked for the criminal case to be terminated. Lawyer Alkhas Abgadzhava called the sentence requested by the prosecutor evidence of the case's "initial defectiveness" and the prosecution's "own uncertainty," noting that his client "is not only not dangerous, she is also useful." Rosenfeld herself asked for a punishment not involving actual imprisonment.
Sofia Rosenfeld is one of the leading specialists on Arctic waterfowl and a senior researcher at the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences. She also spoke out against a bill weakening the ban on killing animals listed in the Red Book.
According to Mediazona, this is the third known case of a real prison term for a woman over donations to FBK. Ukrainian Lyudmila Gonchar and Pyaterochka employee Elena Albegova each previously received three years in a penal colony.
FBK was designated an "extremist" organization in 2021, after which the authorities began prosecuting both the foundation's staff and its donors. According to Mediazona's count, by April 2026 at least 225 criminal cases had been opened across Russia over donations to the foundation. In 2025, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia's prosecution of FBK was unlawful and politically motivated.