Magistrate Yelena Shalneva issued the verdict at Court District No. 313 in Moscow, a Meduza correspondent reported from the courtroom. Prosecutors had sought one and a half years in a general-regime colony.
The court also barred Smirnov from administering websites for two years.
The case rested on four posts in the journalist's Telegram channels that lacked the mandatory labeling. They included a repost from Vyvozhuk about the project's second anniversary, a repost of a Meduza article about Zakhar Zaripov, a teacher from Khabarovsk, a voice message by Smirnov about elections in Botswana, and a post about screenings of documentaries about Russia in Vilnius.
One of three witnesses in the case was Asiya Matyunina, head of a department at Roskomnadzor, Russia's media and internet regulator. She has also testified in similar cases against comedian Semyon Slepakov, singer Monetochka and journalist Yekaterina Gordeyeva.
The Justice Ministry added Smirnov to its "foreign agents" registry in September 2021. The same day, the list also included Meduza's founding company and Pyotr Verzilov, who was the outlet's publisher at the time.
After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, Smirnov refused to attach "foreign agent" labels to his posts. In 2024 he was fined twice under an administrative article for the missing labeling, and in March 2025 he was placed on a wanted list.