Sergey Mikhaylov founded Listok, an independent newspaper in Russia's Altai Republic, and spent nearly a quarter of a century covering elections, alleged corruption and the conduct of local officials. His newspaper also reported on the war against Ukraine. In spring 2022, Listok carried accounts of civilian deaths in Bucha and the destruction of civilian buildings in Mariupol. The publisher was detained days later. A court sentenced him to eight years in prison in August 2024, and a cassation court upheld the sentence in May 2026. Mikhaylov remains incarcerated at Penal Colony No. 5 in Rubtsovsk, Altai Krai.
The newspaper that challenged local power
Born on August 1, 1976, Mikhaylov established Listok in Gorno-Altaisk in 1999. Over the following decades it became a prominent, widely circulated independent paper in a region far from Moscow. The Memorial political prisoners project describes it as the Altai Republic's highest-circulation newspaper at one stage. Its readership extended beyond declared opposition supporters: local reporting reached people interested in what officials were doing and how government decisions affected their communities.
Mikhaylov's journalism and political work were closely intertwined. He headed the local organisation of the democratic PARNAS party and served on its federal political council. From 2010 to 2014, he was a deputy in the Altai Republic's legislature, known as the El Kurultai. He argued for preserving direct elections of local leaders and opposed the cancellation of mayoral elections. He explained that campaign in a 2017 interview with Novaya Gazeta.
Following the beginning of Russia's aggression against Ukraine in 2014, Listok also published stories about the conflict and its consequences. Mikhaylov later described this work as an effort to preserve independent reporting and prevent readers from accepting official propaganda without question.
Years of pressure before the criminal case
Russian authorities had targeted Listok well before Mikhaylov was arrested. The media regulator Roskomnadzor blocked the paper's website in 2016. Mikhaylov and his colleagues reported pressure on printing companies and advertisers, court proceedings and repeated fines. According to Mikhaylov's accounts in letters from detention, security officers had demanded the deletion of Listok's Telegram channel and urged him to record a video apology.
Pressure intensified after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In March 2022, Mikhaylov reported a suspected attempt to access the paper's Telegram channel, which he believed involved police officers. In early April, VKontakte blocked the newspaper's group. Listok's director Olga Komarova faced administrative proceedings, while the newspaper, its publisher and staff were fined over coverage of the war. Memorial reports that the fines collectively exceeded one million rubles.
For a small regional newspaper, the financial and practical effects were profound. Losing online access, printing arrangements and advertising income threatened the paper's survival even before a criminal verdict was handed down against its publisher.
Why Listok reported on Bucha and Mariupol
In March and April 2022, Listok reported on the destruction of the maternity hospital and drama theatre in Mariupol and on the killing of civilians in Bucha following the Russian military's occupation of the area. These events became defining tragedies of the early months of the invasion. The Russian authorities denied that their forces were responsible and adopted new criminal provisions targeting accounts of military conduct that contradicted official statements.
Investigators subsequently characterised reports distributed through Listok's Telegram channel, website and print edition as the dissemination of what they called knowingly false information about Russia's armed forces. Those journalistic publications formed the basis of the criminal case. Mikhaylov rejected the allegation and maintained that the newspaper's purpose had been to inform its readers about the war and discourage people from becoming involved in it.
The arrest and more than two years awaiting judgment
Police detained Mikhaylov in Lyubertsy, near Moscow, on April 13, 2022. In his own account of the raid, armed and masked officers entered his room in the early morning, forced him to the floor and handcuffed him. The same day, officers searched the Listok newsroom in Gorno-Altaisk, seized documents and equipment, and searched staff members' homes.
Mikhaylov was transferred to the Altai Republic and placed in pretrial detention. Court proceedings began in June 2023. Meanwhile, the newsroom was increasingly unable to function in the form it had maintained for decades. Its Telegram channel survived, but the weekly newspaper effectively ceased normal operations.
Mikhaylov continued to communicate through letters and speeches in court. In his final statement in August 2024, he reflected on his 25 years in journalism, Russia's war against Ukraine and his determination to counter state propaganda. The text of the speech was published by Memorial. It reveals a journalist trying to explain his life's work, not simply a defendant answering a criminal allegation.
Eight years and a ban on journalism
On August 30, 2024, the Gorno-Altaisk City Court convicted Mikhaylov under Article 207.3, Part 2(d), of Russia's Criminal Code and imposed eight years in a general-regime penal colony. It also barred him from journalistic and publishing work and from administering online resources for four years after his release. Prosecutors had requested a nine-year sentence. The punishment therefore included not only imprisonment but the prospect of being excluded from the profession he had practised for most of his adult life.
On May 27, 2026, the Eighth Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction upheld the judgment. Kommersant reported on the scheduled hearing and subsequently confirmed that the defence's appeal had been rejected. No verified later change to the conviction or sentence has been found as of October 2026.
Memorial recognises Mikhaylov as a political prisoner and calls for his release. The organisation links the prosecution to the authorities' efforts to suppress opposition reporting, intimidate critics and silence a local newspaper. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the eight-year sentence and likewise demanded his release.
Writing and exercising while imprisoned
Mikhaylov continued to observe the people around him and write about their lives while in detention. His letters describe fellow prisoners, prison routines and conversations with security officials. He has also tried to maintain his physical condition through exercises and yoga. According to CPJ, Olga Komarova reported in November 2024 that he had lost considerable weight but remained active and psychologically resilient. She also described restrictions on correspondence that had affected his morale.
In December 2024, Radio Svoboda reported that Mikhaylov was placed in a punishment cell for five days after doing breathing exercises thirteen minutes after lights-out. The incident illustrates how ordinary efforts to cope with confinement can lead to further disciplinary measures. There is no verified information available about comparable penalties in his current facility.
In August 2024, Novaya Gazeta reported that Mikhaylov had composed nine songs in detention. Writing, which had once taken the form of newspaper articles and public arguments, found other outlets behind bars.
His family and the cost of imprisonment
Memorial's biography notes that Mikhaylov has a child and close relatives who have supported him. Publicly available details of their private lives are limited. FACTUM does not disclose identifying information about minor family members when it is not necessary to understand the case.
For families, a lengthy prison sentence brings years of separation and the practical difficulties of arranging letters, visits and other contact. The published record does not establish every challenge faced by Mikhaylov's relatives, however, and those experiences should not be invented or assumed.
A prosecution that silenced a local newsroom
For independent rights groups, Mikhaylov's case illustrates the broader repression of journalists who report on Russia's war outside the state's authorised narrative. Memorial considers the military “false information” provision a tool for punishing opposition to the war; CPJ regards Mikhaylov's imprisonment as an attack on press freedom. In the Altai Republic, the consequences extended beyond one person: the website block, fines, the publisher's detention and the newspaper's effective shutdown left residents with one less independent source of scrutiny.
International human rights standards protect journalists' right to investigate and report matters of public interest, including the fate of civilians in war. Imprisoning a publisher for such reporting implicates not only his freedom of expression but also the public's right to receive information. There is no need to reconstruct every element of the Russian criminal charge to explain the documented rights concerns.
What is known now — and how to write to him
Mikhaylov turned 50 on August 1, 2026. As of October 22 he remains incarcerated. FACTUM's index of persecuted journalists, Memorial and OVD-Info list Penal Colony No. 5 in Rubtsovsk, Altai Krai, as his place of detention. FACTUM's Russian-language record was checked on October 18, with the May 27 cassation decision still the latest recorded court development.
Letters are one way to support a journalist separated from his work and everyday community. The correspondence address is provided in Mikhaylov's FACTUM profile, but should be rechecked against the latest information from prisoner-support organisations before sending mail.