The Moscow City Court satisfied the lawsuit of journalist Ivan Golunov against the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the recovery of moral damages caused by former police officers involved in the falsification of the criminal case against the journalist.

The court exacted one and a half million rubles from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. This was reported by Interfax with reference to the press service of the court. Golunov filed a lawsuit for five million rubles.

In a commentary to MSK1, the journalist stated that "the most important victory will be the sentence to the customers," and stressed the importance of financial punishment for the defendants in the case. Golunov plans to spend the money received on something "which will reduce the number of stories with illegal criminal prosecution of persons."

In June 2019, Ivan Golunov, then a special correspondent for Meduza, was detained on suspicion of attempted drug dealing. After a large-scale public campaign in defense of Golunov, the criminal prosecution of the journalist was discontinued.
The criminal case was fabricated by officers of the Internal Affairs Directorate for the Western Administrative District of Moscow, who planted drugs on Golunov. In May 2021, policemen Roman Feofanov, Akbar Sergaliev, Denis Konovalov, Maxim Umetbaev, and their boss Igor Lyakhovets, who had been fired by that time, were sentenced to terms ranging from seven to 16 years in prison. In March 2022, the court reduced the terms by six to nine months.

Ivan Golunov sued the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for one and a half million rubles