Alexandra Aleksandrova, better known in Yakutia's media community as Sasha Aleksandrova, spent more than twenty years reporting for local outlets before founding her independent website ZIMA. In 2022 she left Russia, explaining that the invasion of Ukraine had made normal life and independent journalism feel impossible. She returned to her home region in 2024. Security officers detained her on March 20, 2025, and a military court sentenced her to three years in a general-regime penal colony on November 28. The proceedings were closed, and the specific publication underlying the accusation remains undisclosed. As of October 2026, there is no independently verified public confirmation of where she is serving her sentence.
Two decades in Yakutia's newsrooms
Aleksandrova was born on March 13, 1976, in the Sakha Republic, also known as Yakutia. She began her professional life at the Sitim media group, later worked for the newspaper Nashe Vremya and the news portal News.Ykt.ru, and contributed to the local outlet SakhaDay. Over the years she became a familiar name to readers of the republic's online news publications.
She subsequently launched her own online publication, ZIMA, and an associated Telegram channel that was later renamed “Sasha was online.” It was an independent project built around the editorial voice of a regional journalist rather than an established national newsroom. In 2019, the Yakutsk municipal administration recognised Aleksandrova for her online reporting, alongside other local journalists. She was then working at News.Ykt.ru. The award is one reminder that her professional standing predated the criminal case by many years.
Reporting in a regional city is different from working in a national media centre. Audiences often know journalists by name, and the same reporters cover the institutions that shape their neighbours' daily lives. Aleksandrova's career belonged to that local news culture, which has been shrinking as independent media face growing pressure.
Leaving after the invasion
In July 2022, a few months after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Aleksandrova publicly announced that she was leaving the country. She said the events following February 24 had made it impossible to imagine continuing her previous life or planning for the future. In remarks reproduced by regional media and Mediazona, she described a profession that she believed had effectively died and expressed despair at seeing her country transformed into what she called a “country Z.”
She moved to Kazakhstan. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), ZIMA and her Telegram channel carried anti-war reporting and criticism of the Russian authorities. The ZIMA website and channel were subsequently deleted. Their disappearance makes it difficult to reconstruct all of Aleksandrova's original reporting from primary materials. It would be irresponsible to treat every critical post attributed to her as an established part of the later prosecution.
In 2024 she returned to Yakutia. The public record does not provide a sufficient basis to explain her personal reasons for making that decision. In September 2026, Memorial highlighted her story in a wider collection about Russians who had returned to their homeland only to face detention or prosecution. Aleksandrova's case illustrates how the decision to come home can expose an outspoken journalist to a legal system that offers little public transparency.
Detained in Yakutsk, tried behind closed doors
Federal Security Service officers detained Aleksandrova on March 20, 2025. The following day, Yakutsk City Court judge Yevgeny Lukin ordered her held in pretrial detention. Regional journalists reported that even Aleksandrova's colleagues initially did not know which article, video or statement the investigators regarded as criminal. An appeal seeking house arrest was rejected in early April; in May the court extended her detention.
The authorities charged her under Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Russian Criminal Code, alleging the online justification of terrorism. On March 31, the state financial monitoring agency Rosfinmonitoring added her to its register of “terrorists and extremists.” Such a designation creates serious financial restrictions, but it is not a substitute for public scrutiny of the evidence or an independent assessment of the case.
Her trial began on September 16, 2025, before the First Eastern District Military Court in Khabarovsk. The hearings were closed. On November 28, the court sentenced her to three years in a general-regime penal colony. Prosecutors had requested five years. Court representatives also described an additional three-year prohibition, to apply after her release, on publicly posting her own statements and other materials online.
On December 2, the Yakutsk news outlet 14.RU reported that the court's press office had said Aleksandrova pleaded guilty and expressed remorse. This is the court's description of her position in closed proceedings, not an independently observed account of what she said or the circumstances in which she spoke. It did not reveal the underlying publication. SakhaDay suggested that critical posts on her Telegram channel might have prompted the charges, but no public case document has verified that theory.
What the public still cannot know
Much about the prosecution remains unclear. The court has not disclosed the individual publication or its context, preventing readers from assessing precisely what the authorities punished. An article that simply asserts Aleksandrova was jailed for one known anti-war post would go beyond the available record. Equally, an official criminal label cannot be substituted for a description of the actual material.
Her place of detention is also uncertain. During the investigation she was held at Pretrial Detention Centre No. 1 in Yakutsk. In February 2026, CPJ sought information from the facility about her whereabouts but received no reply. Memorial's public record does not name a current prison or colony. In December 2025, a court spokesperson speculated she might be transferred to a women's penal colony in Tomsk. That was a prediction, not confirmation of a transfer.
FACTUM therefore does not provide an unverified postal address, medical account or description of prison conditions. Time spent in pretrial detention counts towards her custodial sentence, but that does not establish that she has been released. As of October 22, 2026, there is no verified public report confirming her release or the outcome of a final appeal against the conviction.
Human rights assessments require precision
CPJ lists Sasha Aleksandrova among imprisoned journalists and has documented the circumstances of her prosecution. In September 2026, the independent regional outlet Govorit NeMoskva added her to a research database examining criminal prosecutions of media workers since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. That database covers cases where journalists appear to face politically motivated pressure, while recognising that the direct connection between a particular charge and professional reporting may differ from case to case.
Memorial's designation needs careful wording. The organisation maintains a public profile of Aleksandrova but lists her under “Other Victims of Political Repression.” Its website explicitly explains that inclusion in that group does not mean formal recognition as a political prisoner. Claiming that Memorial has conferred such status on her would misrepresent its position. The absence of that formal designation does not diminish concerns about press freedom, the secrecy of the trial or her treatment in detention.
On October 5, 2026, organisers of the Anna Politkovskaya Award, presented by RAW in WAR, announced recognition for women journalists imprisoned in Russia and occupied Ukrainian territories. Their reporting on the award named Aleksandrova among at least eleven Russian women journalists in prison. She was mentioned in the context of that wider campaign; there is no basis to claim she received a separate individual award.
More than a name in a criminal register
Aleksandrova turned 50 in March 2026. Before the arrest, she was known to readers for her work at Yakutia's local media outlets and had received professional recognition. Now the public record of her life consists largely of brief court statements, regional news updates and the records maintained by organisations concerned about media repression.
Independent journalism is not confined to capital cities. Local reporting gives residents information about decisions made on their behalf and the confidence that a range of views can be heard. Aleksandrova devoted much of her life to that work in Yakutia. Her imprisonment removes an experienced journalist from public life, while secrecy about the basis for her conviction leaves the public unable to understand what specific speech was punished.
As of October 22, 2026, the most recent confirmed sentence is three years in a general-regime penal colony, imposed on November 28, 2025. CPJ, Memorial and FACTUM's index of persecuted journalists continue to record her imprisonment, but her current facility, medical condition and any definitive appeal outcome remain unverified. Her FACTUM profile can be updated as new information is confirmed.