Leonid Volkov's father admitted funding from FBK

Mikhail Volkov transferred one thousand rubles to the Anti-Corruption Foundation in the summer of 2021

The father of politician Leonid Volkov, scientist Mikhail Volkov , admitted his guilt in the case of financing “extremist activities.” TASS reports this.
According to investigators, on August 5, 2021, Volkov Sr. transferred 1 thousand rubles to FBK.

Mikhail Volkov was detained in Yekaterinburg on April 3. According to the charge, he faces up to 8 years in prison.

69-year-old Mikhail Volkov is a Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, taught at the Ural Federal University named after B. N. Yeltsin (Ural Federal University). There he headed the department of algebra and fundamental computer science.

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Version of the investigation and consequences for the family

A search of Volkov Sr. was carried out last spring by FSB officers. The UralLive telegram channel, associated with the Yekaterinburg team of propagandist Vladimir Solovyov, was one of the first to report the arrest.

“The investigation established that Volkov Sr. transferred money to the account of FBK, founded by the late extremist Alexei Navalny,” the post said.

In February 2025, Mikhail Volkov was fired from UrFU after 49 years of work. According to Leonid Volkov, this happened “in the middle of the semester” and is directly related to his son’s political activities.

“My father committed two crimes from the point of view of the Putin regime. First of all, he is my father. Secondly, he is a very good and honest person. He is a mathematician, professor, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, head of the department, who trained a bunch of graduate students, doctoral students, and developed a world-class mathematical school in the Urals,” Leonid Volkov commented on his father’s case.

Cases against Leonid Volkov

Leonid Volkov left Russia in 2019, in 2021 he was put on the international wanted list and arrested in absentia. In June 2025, he was sentenced in absentia to 18 years in prison on nine articles of the Criminal Code, including financing an extremist organization .

On April 16, 2025, Rosfinmonitoring added Mikhail and Leonid Volkov to the list of persons involved in extremist activities or terrorism.

Dozens of cases for FBK donations

The Moscow City Court declared FBK an extremist organization and banned its activities in June 2021; on August 4, this decision came into force.

The first criminal cases were opened in August 2022 - the accused had a direct reference to FBK in their bank account statements. As Mediazona found out, when analyzing these extracts, investigators noticed other matching identifiers for transfers to FBK. This greatly expanded the circle of suspects.

In total, after the ban on FBK in Russia, about 80 cases were opened for donations to the fund. There are cases in almost 40 regions - from the Kaliningrad to the Magadan regions.

In 2022, the courts received 2 criminal cases regarding FBK donations, in 2023 - 4, in 2024 there were already 25. Over the 7 months of 2025, Mediazona discovered 34 cases received by the courts. There are 49 known convictions. Most of them are not associated with imprisonment - mostly large fines. 10 people received real sentences, 6 of them in Moscow.

Photo: Mikhail Volkov, UrFU

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