Dmitry Gudkov
Dmitry Gudkov, born 1980, Moscow. Charges: Article 207.3 part 2 item d, Russian Criminal Code (Dissemination of false information about the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, government…); “Dmitry Gudkov's case of "fakes" about the Russian Armed Forces”, opened on October 1, 2023. Sentence (August 21, 2024): 8 years' imprisonment in absentia with a ban on administering Internet sites for 4 years. Status: not in Russia.
In brief
Moscow · Moscow · Politicians · Anti-war cases, Terrorism cases, Cases against "foreign agents"
Sentence
8 years
imprisonment in absentia with a ban on administering Internet sites for 4 years
Upheld May 15, 2025
Charges
- Article 165 part 2, Russian Criminal Code — Causing proprietary damage through deception (by an organized group; or causing a severe proprietary damage)
- Article 207.3 part 2 item d, Russian Criminal Code — Dissemination of false information about the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, government agencies, or mercenaries (based on political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred or enmity, or on grounds of hatred or enmity in relation to any social group)
- Article 205.4 (part unknown), Russian Criminal Code — Organisation of a terrorist community and participation in it
- Article 278, Russian Criminal Code — Violent seizure of power or alteration of the constitutional order
Full wording of the charges
The reason for initiating a case of "fakes" was a video from April 2022 on the YouTube channel "Dmitry Gudkov" entitled "What has Putin's war in Ukraine led to?". The following quote caught the attention of the security forces: "Now the Russian army is openly terrorising the defiant population. It continues shelling cities, aiming at residential buildings and railway stations. In Bucha, Irpen, Borodyanka, Russian soldiers have left mountains of corpses. A professional army cannot act by such methods. This is the real genocide. If the Kremlin's goal was to kill civilians and terror, then Peskov is certainly right, Russia has successfully proved to the whole world that its leadership is no better than Al-Qaeda."
Latest event
November 19, 2025 — added to the rosfinmonitoring list of “terrorists and extremists”
Timeline
· Added to the Rosfinmonitoring list of “terrorists and extremists”
· Cassation ruling
upheld
· Criminal case opened
The case of Anti-War Committee of Russia
· First-instance verdict
guilty verdict · 8 years
· Preventive measure: arrest in absentia
· Criminal case opened
Dmitry Gudkov's case of "fakes" about the Russian Armed Forces
· Added to the register of “foreign agents”
· Persecution begins
The case of Dmitry Gudkov
Criminal case
Dmitry Gudkov's case of "fakes" about the Russian Armed Forces
- Case number
- 01-0530/2024
Thematic group: Anti-war case
The case of Dmitry Gudkov
Thematic group: The case of damage to the Moscow Property Department
The case of Anti-War Committee of Russia
Other defendants in the case
- Sergei Aleksashenko — Not in Russia
- Marat Gelman — Not in Russia
- Leonid Gozman — Not in Russia
- Sergei Guriev — Not in Russia
- Boris Zimin — Not in Russia
- Vladimir Kara-Murza — Not in Russia
- Garry Kasparov — Not in Russia
- Mikhail Kasianov — Not in Russia
- Evgenii Kiselev — Not in Russia
- Mikhail Kokorich — Not in Russia
- Evgenii Kunin — Not in Russia
- Elena Lukyanova — Not in Russia
- Kirill Martynov — Not in Russia
- Yuri Pivovarov — Not in Russia
- Maxim Reznik — Not in Russia
- Artur Smolianinov — Not in Russia
- Mikhail Khodorkovsky — Not in Russia
- Evgenii Chichvarkin — Not in Russia
- Konstantin Chumakov — Not in Russia
- Anastasia Shevchenko — Not in Russia
- Viktor Shenderovich — Not in Russia
- Ekaterina Shulman — Not in Russia
Thematic group: Anti-war case
Details and sources
Full summary
Former State Duma deputy, opposition politician. On 2 June 2021, he was detained after a search in the case of causing damage to the Moscow City Property Department. The next day he was released in the status of a suspect. Gudkov left Russia.
In February 2023, he was included in the register of "foreign agents".
In October 2023, it became known that a case was opened against Gudkov for spreading "fakes" about the Armed Forces. On 21 August 2024, he was sentenced in absentia to eight years.
On 14 October 2025, the FSB reported the initiation of a case against Gudkov and other members of the "Anti-War Committee of Russia" for violent seizure of power and organisation of activities of a terrorist community. The reason was the adoption of the "Berlin Declaration" on the need for a change of power in Russia.
All fields of the record
- Citizenship
- Russia
- Preventive measures
- arrest in absentia
- Persecution episodes
- 3
Other people prosecuted under Article 165 part 2, Russian Criminal Code
Under the same article, not necessarily in the same case.