Olga Komleva, a RusNews journalist and former volunteer for Alexei Navalny's regional office in Ufa, has been imprisoned since March 2024. A court sentenced her to 12 years in a penal colony on charges of participating in an extremist community and spreading what prosecutors called false information about the Russian military. Her trial was closed to the public. In August 2026, a cassation court upheld the verdict, and her lawyer publicly identified the brief anti-war post cited in the prosecution. Komleva denies wrongdoing and is serving her sentence at Penal Colony No. 28 in Berezniki, Perm Krai.
Before the arrest: Property work, activism and reporting
Komleva was born on January 2, 1979, in Lipetsk Oblast. She attended school in Bashkortostan, studied at the Ufa Technological Institute of Service and worked as a cadastral engineer and in real estate. She has a son. Years before she was prosecuted, Komleva participated in local civic campaigns and challenged administrative decisions through the courts.
She joined Navalny's Ufa campaign office as a volunteer in 2017. She sought answers from officials after reports of a radioactive ruthenium-106 release, attended demonstrations against pension reform and was fined for joining protests in 2018. Police searched her home in 2019 in connection with an investigation into Navalny's network, but did not charge her then.
In 2021, Komleva began livestreaming and reporting for the independent outlet RusNews. Her coverage included demonstrations, detentions and criminal trials in Bashkortostan. She attended proceedings involving Lilia Chanysheva, the former head of Navalny's Ufa office, and testified for the defence about what that office had actually done. She also reported on the January 2024 protests in Baymak. Several regional activists interviewed by Mediazona believed the coverage was a factor in her later prosecution, although no public document establishes that as the investigators' motive. FACTUM lists Komleva in its database of persecuted journalists.
The cost of protests: 18 civil lawsuits
Before the criminal charges, law enforcement agencies had pursued Komleva through the civil courts. The Interior Ministry and the National Guard sought reimbursement for police overtime, transport and other expenses associated with pro-Navalny demonstrations. Mediazona documented 18 civil claims exceeding 5.5 million rubles in total. Courts granted many of them, leading to the freezing of bank accounts and the seizure or attachment of property, including the family's home and car.
These actions were formally civil lawsuits over the costs of policing protests, not criminal convictions for reporting. Nonetheless, they placed significant financial pressure on Komleva and her family long before she was arrested. Separately, the European Court of Human Rights awarded her compensation in 2023 over penalties imposed in connection with two 2018 demonstrations, according to OVD-Info.
Summoned as a witness, detained as a suspect
On March 27, 2024, officers arrived at Komleva's home with an order compelling her appearance for questioning. It claimed earlier summonses had repeatedly been sent; according to OVD-Info, she had not actually been served. She was told she would be questioned as a witness in an investigation involving organisations associated with Navalny. At the Investigative Committee, she was instead charged with participating in an extremist community. On March 28, Judge Rafis Nabiyev of Ufa's Kirovsky District Court ordered her pretrial detention.
The first charge was brought under Part 2 of Article 282.1 of Russia's Criminal Code, which punishes participation in an extremist community. Investigators alleged that Komleva had voluntarily joined a group linked to Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation after being influenced by its online publications. Mediazona reported that her volunteer work at the Ufa office had ended before Navalny's organisations were designated extremist in 2021. She was later transferred to Moscow for investigative proceedings and then returned to Ufa.
In July 2024, investigators added a charge under Part 2 of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code, which criminalises alleged knowingly false statements about Russia's armed forces. Kommersant and Memorial's detailed case history cite items (b) and (d), involving allegations of an organised group and political hatred; Memorial's shorter charge listing names only item (d). The trial was held behind closed doors, limiting independent examination of the evidence and how those elements were established.
The verdict and appeals
The Ufa trial began in October 2024. Journalists and members of the public were excluded from the hearings. On July 18, 2025, prosecutors requested 13 years in prison. On July 29, Judge Nabiyev imposed a 12-year sentence in a general-regime penal colony, followed by one year of restricted liberty. The court also barred Komleva from administering websites and organising or taking part in public events for five years. She rejected the charges.
Bashkortostan's Supreme Court upheld the judgment on November 13, 2025. On August 14, 2026, the Sixth Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction in Samara also left the decision unchanged. Lawyer Sergey Makarenko said the defence had argued that no criminal offence had been committed and planned a further appeal to Russia's Supreme Court. No publicly verified subsequent reversal has been found as of October 22, 2026.
The anti-war post identified in court
For much of the proceedings, the public knew only that a social media post from May 2022 featured in the military-disinformation charge. After the cassation hearing, Memorial reported Makarenko's account of the post. Komleva criticised Russia's invasion of Ukraine, accused the Russian leadership and military of bombing and killing Ukrainians, and ended with an appeal for peace.
Makarenko said the resulting sentence was disproportionate to such a short pacifist message. The closed proceedings also mean the public cannot independently assess which evidence the court relied on to substantiate an organised group, political hatred or the overall sentence imposed for the two offences.
Health concerns and reports of mistreatment
Komleva has type 2 diabetes, and her lawyers and family have said she needs medication and an appropriate diet. According to her relatives, they initially had to purchase medicines and deliver them to the detention facility. In spring 2025, she complained about a detention officer's physical contact during searches, which she described as improper and potentially provocative. She expressly said she did not consider the incident sexual harassment; describing it otherwise would misrepresent her own account.
In autumn 2025, Komleva wrote that she had lost the ability to speak for an extended period. She said similar episodes had previously lasted only a few hours under stress. An appeal hearing was delayed because of her loss of speech. After her transfer to Penal Colony No. 28 in Berezniki in December, her husband reported that prison officials had issued her a reprimand when she did not speak to them. No independently accessible medical assessment has established the cause of the episodes.
The prosecution also affected her family. During a November 2021 raid, officers seized devices including the computer used by her young son. After her arrest, relatives organised deliveries of medicines, food and books, while her husband, Vyacheslav Komlev, publicly reported on her situation.
Latest developments in 2026
On October 5, 2026, RAW in WAR announced that imprisoned women journalists from Ukraine and Russia would collectively receive the Anna Politkovskaya Award. The named Russian journalists included Komleva, Maria Ponomarenko, Antonina Favorskaya and others. The award marked 20 years since Politkovskaya's murder.
On October 8, OVD-Info reported an update from Komleva's husband: she was feeling reasonably well at that time, monitoring her health, working in prison production and reading books. He reported no complaints about her current conditions. That recent assessment should not be confused with, or used to dismiss, her earlier reports about conditions in pretrial detention. Both Memorial and OVD-Info identify her current location as Penal Colony No. 28 in Berezniki; correspondence addresses should be checked before use.
Press freedom and the criminal law
Article 282.1 distinguishes organising an extremist community from participating in one. Prosecutors charged Komleva with participation under Part 2. Article 207.3 punishes the alleged knowing dissemination of false information about the Russian armed forces; its aggravated Part 2 carries a prison term of five to ten years. The prosecution treated Komleva's conduct as satisfying both statutes. Yet the designation of Navalny's organisations as extremist in 2021 does not by itself establish that every earlier volunteer act was criminal. A political statement calling for peace must also be evaluated against the protection of freedom of expression.
Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights protects expression and reporting on matters of public interest, including war and government conduct. Restrictions must meet tests of legality, necessity and proportionality. Article 14 guarantees fair-trial rights; although hearings may be closed in limited circumstances, excluding the public makes scrutiny of serious accusations especially important. The public record in Komleva's case provides little detail about the factual basis for the alleged organised group or the court's assessment of the anti-war statement.
The Memorial political prisoners project recognises Komleva as a political prisoner and includes her among prisoners jailed in connection with the war. Reporters Without Borders identified her arrest as part of the crackdown on independent journalists, while the Council of Europe's Platform to Promote the Protection of Journalism and Safety of Journalists registered her sentence as a serious press-freedom alert. These are the assessments of the organisations concerned, rather than rulings of Russian courts.
As of October 22, 2026, Komleva remains imprisoned in Berezniki. Her 12-year sentence remains in force following cassation review. Her lawyers' reported intention to seek further review does not establish that a higher court has accepted an appeal or changed the judgment.