Maxim Kuzakhmetov

Maxim Rafikovich Kuzakhmetov is a St. Petersburg journalist, publisher, media manager and popular historian. He was born on August 21, 1969, in Leningrad and graduated from the psychology faculty of Leningrad State University. He has worked in media since 1991 and has held senior positions in publishing and journalism.

Kuzakhmetov served as editor-in-chief of historical magazines including Vash Tainy Sovetnik and Sekretnaya Istoriya and headed MK v Pitere from 2018 to 2021. He also hosted the history program Vsyo Tak+ on Echo of Moscow and continued the program on the YouTube channel Ishchem Vykhod after the radio station was shut down.

He moved to Riga in 2022. Russia’s Justice Ministry designated him a “foreign agent” on June 2, 2023, and Russian courts later imposed a series of administrative fines related to those requirements.

In August 2025, Rosfinmonitoring added Kuzakhmetov to its official list of “terrorists and extremists.” He was subsequently placed on a federal wanted list.

The criminal case includes an unusually broad set of charges. Current reporting lists Part 2 of Article 207.3, Part 2 of Article 280.1, Part 2 of Article 282.2, Part 2 of Article 282, Parts 1 and 2 of Article 205.4, Parts 1 and 2 of Article 205.2 and Article 329. The publicly available case material does not yet allow every charge to be reliably linked to a specific publication or broadcast.

On February 9, 2026, Moscow’s Basmanny District Court ordered Kuzakhmetov’s arrest in absentia. On March 11, an appellate court upheld that decision. He remains outside Russia and no verdict on the merits has been issued.