Nika Novak, a journalist from the Siberian city of Chita, is serving a four-year prison sentence at Penal Colony No. 11 in Russia's Irkutsk region. In November 2024, a court convicted her under Article 275.1 of the Russian Criminal Code, which criminalises certain forms of confidential cooperation with a foreign organisation. The Federal Security Service (FSB) linked the case to her work for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). Since her conviction, Novak has repeatedly faced disciplinary isolation and has gone on hunger strike to protest conditions. In 2026, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that her imprisonment was arbitrary and called on Russia to release her.
Journalism, poetry and local newsrooms
Novak was born on July 15, 1992, and trained as a lawyer. She wrote poetry and took part in community projects. She had worked in journalism since at least 2014, first in the Luhansk region and later in Chita. Her employers included the newspaper Vechorka, the ZabTV television station and the news outlets Zab.ru and ChitaMedia. She held editorial positions and reported on life in Zabaykalsky Krai, the region surrounding Chita.
Her political views should not be rewritten to fit the present-day account of her persecution. In 2014, Novak supported armed groups in Donbas; at the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, she also criticised opponents of the war. She later criticised local officials for organising events featuring the pro-war Z symbol rather than addressing the problems of Zabaykalsky Krai. Those statements are documented in a profile by the Memorial political prisoners support project. Memorial's recognition of Novak as a political prisoner does not imply endorsement of her views.
Novak also worked as a freelance reporter for RFE/RL, including its Siberia.Realities project. Both the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and RFE/RL have confirmed her connection with the broadcaster. In an earlier profile prepared during the investigation, Memorial noted that it could not find stories carrying her byline on the Siberia.Realities website. The lack of a publicly indexed byline does not negate her subsequently confirmed freelance work; it does, however, show the limits of what can be established from an open archive.
Two detentions and closed hearings
According to information collected by rights defenders, unidentified men detained Novak on November 29, 2023, and equipment was seized from her home. She said that a lock of her hair was torn out during the incident. She was released that day. On December 25, FSB officers detained her again in Chita and transported her to Moscow.
Moscow's Lefortovsky District Court ordered Novak held in pretrial detention. Investigators cited Article 275.1 at early closed-door hearings, but the public was given little information about the alleged conduct. Accounts of the prosecution's position claimed that she had received money from a foreign media organisation to prepare materials supposedly containing false information about the authorities and the Russian military.
Novak was not charged with treason under Article 275, nor was she tried under Article 207.3, the provision used to prosecute alleged “false information” about the army. Article 275.1 concerns confidential dealings with representatives of foreign states or organisations for the purpose of knowingly assisting activity directed against Russia's security. The mere fact that a newsroom is based abroad is not, on its own, an adequate description of that offence.
Four years in prison and the confiscation order
Novak's case went before the Zabaykalsky Regional Court in the autumn of 2024. The hearings were closed. On November 26, the court sentenced her to four years in a general-regime penal colony. According to RFE/RL, she became the first journalist known to have been convicted under Article 275.1. Siberia.Realities subsequently published accounts of her statements in court and early letters from detention.
On March 31, 2025, an appeals court upheld the prison sentence. RFE/RL reported that the court also ordered the confiscation of 500,000 rubles that investigators characterised as proceeds of criminal activity. The money was linked to her work for a foreign news organisation. A full public explanation of how the court connected those journalistic payments to a threat to state security has not been made available.
The dates matter. Novak was arrested in December 2023. The Russian authorities designated RFE/RL an “undesirable organisation” only in February 2024. Her original arrest therefore cannot accurately be described as a consequence of violating that later designation.
Letters, hunger strikes and solitary confinement
In spring 2025, Novak was transferred to Penal Colony No. 11 in the settlement of Bozoy, Irkutsk region. Her mother, lawyers and human rights organisations reported psychological pressure, interference with correspondence and repeated disciplinary confinement. In August 2025, according to RFE/RL, she spent five days in a punishment cell after refusing to retract complaints about poor detention conditions. She went on hunger strike at different times during her imprisonment.
In late November 2025, her relatives and lawyer went several days without knowing exactly where she was. Reports circulated that she had disappeared from the colony. It was later established that she was still there. Confusion about a possible transfer arose in part from a response sent by another institution to a misaddressed letter. The family's fear was nevertheless real: communication had broken down and letters were delayed. Novak's lawyer was able to see her on December 10. The earlier report that she had “disappeared” must not be repeated as a description of her current whereabouts.
According to Current Time, Novak was held in a cell-type punishment unit, known in Russia as a PKT, from February to May 2026. She was subsequently placed in a disciplinary isolation cell. On June 12, Current Time reported that she had left solitary confinement after 15 days and was then being held under stricter prison conditions. The reason for the latest punishment remained unclear because part of her letter had been blacked out by prison censors. The June report does not establish that the same regime remained in effect throughout the following months.
A campaign for her release
Memorial recognised Novak as a political prisoner in July 2024. CPJ and other international press-freedom organisations have called for her release. The National Press Club in the United States, working with lawyers, petitioned the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. In November 2025, ten organisations backed an urgent appeal in light of reports of hunger strikes and isolation. That year, Novak also received the National Press Club's John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award.
In March 2026, Yabloko politician Anna Cherepanova asked Russia's human rights commissioner, Tatyana Moskalkova, to intervene on behalf of Novak and theatre director Yevgeniya Berkovich. Such public appeals demonstrate support, but they do not establish that prison authorities met any of the requests.
UN experts call for her immediate release
In May 2026, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an opinion finding Novak's deprivation of liberty arbitrary. An RFE/RL update published on August 4 reported that the experts had criticised the overly broad wording of Article 275.1 and its use to punish her work as a journalist. The Working Group called for her immediate release.
The opinion does not automatically overturn a Russian court judgment. The Working Group is an expert body operating under the UN human rights system. Its findings carry substantial legal and human rights significance, but the Russian authorities would have to take steps to release Novak. By October 2026 there was no verified indication that the call had been implemented.
Journalistic work and the limits of state-security laws
Article 275.1 was introduced into Russia's Criminal Code in July 2022. It provides for prison sentences of three to eight years and addresses confidential cooperation with foreign actors for the purpose of assisting activity the accused knows to be directed against Russian security. It is a separate offence from treason under Article 275. The provision has been amended since Novak's conviction, making it important to distinguish the law in force at the time of the alleged conduct from later wording.
Journalists may legitimately accept assignments and payment from foreign newsrooms and protect the confidentiality of their sources. None of those ordinary aspects of journalism establishes a criminal intent to undermine state security. The closed proceedings in Novak's case have prevented independent scrutiny of how the court interpreted her reporting and payments. The lack of a publicly available reasoned judgment is itself an obstacle to meaningful public examination of the prosecution.
Memorial regards Article 275.1 as insufficiently precise and Novak's prosecution as politically motivated. Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights protects the freedom to seek, receive and impart information; Article 14 sets out the right to a fair trial. The secrecy of the proceedings and the lack of accessible case materials raise serious concerns about whether the interference with her rights was necessary and proportionate.
What is known as of October 22, 2026
FACTUM's database of persecuted journalists and rights groups continue to list Novak as imprisoned. Her last confirmed place of detention is Penal Colony No. 11 in Bozoy. The latest detailed public accounts of her prison regime date from June 2026, and RFE/RL confirmed in August that she remained in custody. No later verified announcement of her release, a change in her sentence or her precise current disciplinary status was found.
This report draws on publicly available information as of October 22, 2026.