October 20, 2026, 1:44 PMRSSRU

Journalist

Antonina Kravtsova (Favorskaia)

ImprisonedChecked October 18, 2026

Antonina Kravtsova (Favorskaia), born 1989, Moscow. Charges: Article 282.1 part 2, Russian Criminal Code (Participation in an extremist community); “The case of journalists' participation in activities of an extremist community”. Sentence (April 15, 2025): 5 years 6 months' imprisonment in a general regime penal colony. Status: imprisoned; deprived of liberty since March 27, 2024; place of detention: Penal colony No. 3, Kostroma Oblast. Recognition: Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners — recognised as a political prisoner, May 13, 2024.

In brief

Moscow · Moscow · Journalists · Extremism cases, Cases against Navalny/ACF supporters

Sentence

5 years 6 months

imprisonment in a general regime penal colony

Verdict April 15, 2025

Upheld December 4, 2025

Charges

Full wording of the charges

According to the investigation, "during the period from November 2022 to March 2024", "in accordance with the assigned role in the extremist community, carried out her criminal activities by shooting videos and photos with their subsequent posting by unidentified persons on the Internet, including on the YouTube channel "Navalny LIVE, on the channel "Navalny's Team" in the social network Telegram". In addition, "in the period from 24 November 2022 to 18 January 2024", "acting deliberately, on the instructions of the head of the extremist community" Ivan Zhdanov "and unidentified leaders and participants of the extremist community, with the aim of discrediting the current government, while using for conspiracy purposes his work in the online publication "Sota.Vision" where Artem Kriger who later joined the extremist community also worked hiding behind editorial assignments filmed and audio-recorded the speeches of the extremist community leader Alexei Navalny, as well as the pronouncements of court decisions on Alexei Navalny's administrative claims in court proceedings held during working hours from 09.00 to 18.00. 00 a.m. to 6 p.m. 00 min. in the Kovrov City Court of the Vladimir Region", "including on the following dates: 24 November 2022, 11 and 25 January 2023, 27 February 2023, 13 and 17 November 2023, 15 and 18 January 2024". After the filming was completed, "acting deliberately, on the instructions of the leader of the extremist community, Zhdanov, and unidentified leaders and participants of the extremist community, while in the town of Kovrov in the Vladimir region using the equipment she had with access to the Internet she sent the photographs, videos and audio recordings she had made during the filming to an unidentified participant of the extremist community for production and subsequent posting by unidentified persons on the Internet on the YouTube video hosting channel "Popular Politics" as well as on the Navalny's Team channel on the Telegram social network. "After the death of the extremist community leader Navalny on 16 February 2024, on the instructions of the extremist community leader Zhdanov, in order to discredit the current government and increase protest sentiments in the country, she arrived together with Navalny's mother" Lyudmila Navalnaia "in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, where she filmed" Lyudmila Navalnaia between 20 and 22 February 2024. On 22 February 2024, "acting deliberately, on the instructions of the leaders of the extremist community Zhdanov I.Y. and other unidentified leaders and participants of the extremist community, being in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District on the territory of the town of Labytnangi and the town of Salekhard in exactly unspecified locations. At an unspecified location in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District in the territory of the towns of Labytnangi and Salekhard, using equipment with access to the Internet, Zhdanova I.Y. and other unidentified leaders and members of the extremist community sent the footage obtained during the video shootings to an unidentified member of the extremist community for the production and subsequent posting of videos on the Internet on the Navalny LIVE and Alexei Navalny channels of the YouTube video hosting website.

Latest event

June 13, 2026 — imprisonment begins

Checked October 18, 2026 · no changes since October 15

Recognition by rights defenders

FACTUM stories

  • October 5, 2026

    Antonina Favorskaya: 5½ years in prison in the FBK “extremist community” case

    SOTAvision journalist Antonina Favorskaya is serving a five-and-a-half-year sentence in Penal Colony No. 3 in Russia’s Kostroma Region under Article 282.1(2) of the Criminal Code. Prosecutors tied her to Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation through video production and street interviews; the trial was closed. By September 11, 2026, she had spent more than 82 days in punishment cells after refusing prison sewing work.

Timeline

  1. · Imprisonment begins

  2. · Appeal ruling

    upheld

  3. · First-instance verdict

    guilty verdict · 5 years 6 months

  4. · Added to the Rosfinmonitoring list of “terrorists and extremists”

  5. · Recognised as a political prisoner

    Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners

  6. · Preventive measure: placement in a temporary detention facility

Criminal case

The case of journalists' participation in activities of an extremist community

Case number
01-0934/2024

Other defendants in the case

Thematic group: The case of the extremist community led by Navalny; The case of journalists of participation in an extremist community

Write a letter

Facility: Penal colony No. 3, Kostroma Oblast

Address (in Russian, as written on the envelope)

156511, Костромская обл., Костромской район, пос. Прибрежный, ул. Мира, 1, ФКУ «ИК № 3 УФСИН России по Костромской области», Кравцова Антонина Юрьевна, 1989 г.р.

Address checked October 18, 2026

Details and sources

Full summary

According to OVD-Info

She is a resident of Moscow and a journalist with SOTAvision. She was detained on 17 March 2024 in a cafe together with two other female journalists after visiting Alexei Navalny's grave at Borisovskoye cemetery, allegedly because of an anonymous call about a crime committed. The next day she was arrested for 10 days under the article on disobedience to the police (Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences). According to the law enforcers' version, she refused to show her documents, "waved her arms defiantly, grabbed the uniform and tried to run away". Favorskaia and another journalist Anastasia Musatova said in court that seven law enforcers (some of them were in plain clothes) burst into the establishment and immediately went towards them. When the journalists reached for their phones to put them in their pockets, the law enforcers started shouting about the prohibition of filming, and then knocked the phone out of Musatova's hands, while Favorskaia was thrown down on the table.

On 27 March, after serving an administrative sentence, Favorskaia was detained by officers of the Investigative Committee and taken away for questioning in a criminal case of participation in the activities of an extremist community. On the same day, law enforcers detained journalists Alexandra Astakhova and Anastasia Musatova, who came to the special detention centre to meet Favorskaia. All three were searched. Astakhova and Musatova were questioned and released as witnesses, Favorskaia was kept in the temporary detention cell. On 29 March she was taken into custody.

On 24 May, she was placed in the pre-trial detention centre on the preventive register as "a person who propagandises, professes or disseminates extremist ideology".

On 5 June it became known that the lawyer Fedor Sirosh, who represented Favorskaia's interests, was suspended from the case, because in 2019 he attended as a defender the interrogation of the lawyer of Navalny's team Evgeny Zamiatin in the case of money laundering (item "b" part 4 of article 174 of the Criminal Code).

On 15 April 2025, Favorskaia was sentenced to five and a half years in a general regime penal colony.

All fields of the record
Citizenship
Russia
Sources (1)

Other people prosecuted under Article 282.1 part 2, Russian Criminal Code

Under the same article, not necessarily in the same case.

All 65 under this article →