Andrei Soldatov

Editor-in-Chief of Agentura.Ru, has been studying the Russian security services for many years. Together with journalist Irina Borogan, he has written several books on the work of the FSB.

On 11 March 2022, just a week before the criminal case on "fakes" appeared, Soldatov and Borogan spoke about the repression that Vladimir Putin launched against the FSB. According to the journalists, after the first two weeks of the war, the leadership of one of the FSB units, the Operational Information and International Relations Service (SOIMS), was placed under house arrest.

The investigation also checked Soldatov under articles on libel (Article 128.1 of the Criminal Code), calls to extremism (Part 2 of Article 280 of the Criminal Code) and incitement to hatred (Part 1 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code), but he was not charged with these offences. Soldatov was put on a wanted list and his property was seized. Interpol refused to fulfil the Russian Federation's extradition request. In February 2023, it became known that the prosecutor's office did not take the case to court and sent it for further investigation. In December 2025, it became known that a case was opened against Soldatov for participation in the activities of an "undesirable" organisation and violation of the law on "foreign agents". On 30 March 2026, he was sentenced in absentia in this case to four years' imprisonment.