Moscow City Court sentenced 35-year-old journalist Darya Shipachyova to 12 years in a penal colony on charges of state treason, and also imposed a fine of 300,000 rubles, Mediazona reported.
Prosecutors had requested the same sentence. The defense asked the court to take into account Shipachyova's admission of guilt and cooperation with the investigation.
The trial lasted one and a half hours. What exactly Shipachyova was accused of is unclear — the proceedings were held behind closed doors and case materials are classified.
The judge ordered the confiscation of 1 million 558 thousand rubles from Shipachyova. This is a standard practice in criminal cases involving the financing of criminal activity.
A friend of the journalist, speaking to Mediazona, mentioned a money transfer but said she did not know “whether it was a transfer to the [Ukrainian] army.” The outlet T-invariant claims the prosecution was triggered by a money transfer to Ukraine — Shipachyova was born there and many of her relatives live there. Her acquaintances said she transferred the money to a civilian.
Shipachyova was detained on April 23, 2025, at her apartment in Moscow. Friends learned from neighbors that a “crowd of OMON [special police] burst into” the journalist’s home at night, after which she stopped responding to messages. She was initially sent to a pretrial detention center in Rostov-on-Don and was transferred to Lefortovo prison before the trial began.
When charges were brought, Shipachyova struck a deal with the investigation. In letters from detention, she did not discuss the substance of the case.
Shipachyova worked as a science and medical journalist. She contributed to RBC, Lenta.ru, Takie Dela, Forbes, Wonderzine, and Reminder. She also wrote the book “Bez Paniki” (Don’t Panic) and hosted the podcast “Zhizn — Bol” (Life Is Pain). Shortly before her arrest, according to T-invariant, she received threats from supporters of the banned “Male State” movement and was harassed on social media for her feminist statements.
According to Verstka, since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, at least 1,904 people have been charged with treason, espionage, or cooperation with a foreign state, of whom 1,498 have been identified. In the first six months of 2026, 312 people were convicted on such charges — an absolute record, the outlet reported. Only 4% of all defendants had access to state secrets, while a third were essentially random Russian citizens.