Kirovsky District Court of Tomsk sentenced journalist Andrei Serafimov in absentia to 4.5 years in a general-regime penal colony, Serafimov reported on his Telegram channel. He was found guilty of calls for activity directed against state security (paragraph 'c' of part 2 of Article 280.4 of the Criminal Code).
Serafimov, a former head of the apparatus of the Tomsk regional branch of the pro-Kremlin youth movement 'Young Guard of United Russia' and author of the Telegram channel 'Ulitsa Barkhatnaya', has collaborated with Meduza and Novaya Gazeta Europe. He currently lives abroad.
His criminal prosecution became known in December 2023, when security forces visited his relatives and asked about publications on his Telegram channel. Serafimov linked the prosecution to his calls not to go to military enlistment offices: after the announcement of 'partial mobilization', he repeatedly urged subscribers not to accept draft notices, even if they were summoned to 'clarify information'. 'The military enlistment office is your main enemy if you want to live. Remember that most mobilized people came to the enlistment office themselves. Better a fine than death on foreign land because of one madman,' he wrote.
In January 2024, the journalist was put on a wanted list, and in October 2025, he was arrested in absentia. Serafimov called Article 280.4 the 'successor' of Article 70 of the USSR Criminal Code — the so-called 'anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda'. According to him, many political prisoners are currently held under this article, from Sakhalin to Moscow, including defendants in the 'Mayakovsky case'. He commented on the verdict: 'Still merciful!'