The sentence was announced by the state news agency TASS, citing the Federal Security Service (FSB). According to the security service, Zyuzov began work in February 2022 on a project that Russian security officials deemed aimed against Russia's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The FSB alleges the project was intended to train leaders of national liberation movements of Russia's small-numbered peoples abroad, distribute materials designated by the authorities as extremist, and collect and analyze information on assignment from government bodies and analytical centers of the European Union.

According to the security service, Zyuzov received more than two million dollars from 12 foreign organizations to finance the project. The FSB statement mentions the Hanns Seidel Foundation, the Prague Civil Society Centre, the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), the Swedish Institute, IREX Europe (ERIM), Chatham House and the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation. Some of them have been designated undesirable in Russia.

The FSB also said Zyuzov admitted guilt in full and exposed other participants. The sentence has not yet entered into force.

The case against Zyuzov was initially opened under a charge of cooperation on a confidential basis with a foreign state, international or foreign organization (Article 275.1 of the Criminal Code). The charge was ultimately reclassified to state treason (Article 275 of the Criminal Code).

Nikolai Zyuzov holds a doctorate in philosophy and is a sociologist and one of the well-known researchers of the legacy of Pitirim Sorokin, one of the founders of theories of social stratification and social mobility. He wrote two books about Sorokin.

Zyuzov taught at the Komi State Pedagogical Institute, Syktyvkar State University and Ukhta State Technical University, where he headed the philosophy department. In 2008 he moved to Canada, where he studied law and taught at a college affiliated with the University of Toronto. He obtained Canadian citizenship in 2015 and then returned to Syktyvkar.

After the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Zyuzov left for Canada again but continued to visit his native village in the Kortkeros district of Komi. In the summer of 2025, during one such trip, he was detained; according to Ostorozhno, Novosti, this became known only in the fall.

The human rights project Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial recognized Zyuzov as a political prisoner.