Political persecution in Russia
People prosecuted in Russia for their political stance, anti-war speech and religious beliefs. The data and the criteria are OVD-Info’s; FACTUM relays them with attribution.
Last checked against the source: September 5, 2026, 6:09 AM
Changes this week
No changes recorded in the database over the past week. We check against the source daily; when someone’s status, sentence or place of detention changes, it appears here and in the timeline.
By case category
- Extremism cases2,442
- Terrorism cases1,844
- Anti-war cases1,385
- Cases against Jehovah's Witnesses1,025
- Cases related to mass actions728
- Cases against Hizb ut-Tahrir444
- Cases against Navalny/ACF supporters301
- Cases against "foreign agents"243
By Criminal Code article
- Article 282.2 part 2, Russian Criminal Code930
- Article 282.2 part 1, Russian Criminal Code649
- Article 205.2 part 2, Russian Criminal Code615
- Article 205.5 part 2, Russian Criminal Code371
- Article 205.4 part 2, Russian Criminal Code356
- Article 282.3 part 1, Russian Criminal Code330
- Article 207.3 part 2 item d, Russian Criminal Code312
- Article 318 part 1, Russian Criminal Code287
- Article 205.3, Russian Criminal Code285
- Article 280.3 part 1, Russian Criminal Code274
By region
- Moscow956
- Occupied territory of Republic of Crimea353
- Saint Petersburg335
- Bashkortostan253
- Tatarstan205
- Krasnodar Krai186
- Sverdlovsk Oblast166
- Rostov Oblast148
- Primorsky Krai146
- Moscow Oblast138
- Krasnoyarsk Krai137
- Chelyabinsk Oblast126
Political prisoners of Russia — 2,155 people imprisoned →
Methodology
This is a reference, not an assistance service. We do not raise funds, do not forward letters and do not make our own assessment of who counts as politically persecuted: that assessment belongs to OVD-Info.
Some people asked not to be named — those records are counted, but carry no name and have no page of their own. We do not store or display photographs. Case summaries are reproduced as published, without rewriting; where the source has no English summary, the page says so rather than showing the Russian text.
Data for this section comes from the political persecution database of OVD-Info, licensed under CC BY 3.0.
The criteria for treating a person as politically persecuted belong to OVD-Info. FACTUM relays their assessment with attribution and makes no assessment of its own. Case summaries are reproduced as published by the source, without rewriting.
OVD-Info has been designated an «extremist» organisation in Russia — by decision of the Russian authorities, like other independent human rights and media projects.