Average sentence for political crimes in Russia almost twice as long as in 2022

The average length of sentences for those convicted of political crimes in Russia has nearly doubled since the start of the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to а report released by human rights NGO Memorial on Wednesday.

Using Memorial’s database of political prisoners in Russia, the report found that average sentence lengths for political prisoners increased from 6 years and 7 months in 2021 to 11 years for those convicted in 2026.

The increase comes despite the fact that Russian courts today hand out far more short prison sentences in cases that would previously have resulted in a fine or a suspended sentence.

The report found that the increase in sentence lengths was due to a combination of factors, including several revisions to Russia’s criminal code, the growing use of more serious articles in existing legislation, and an increase in the average number of charges per case.

Memorial noted that 12 new articles had been added to the criminal code since 2022, intended for use in politically motivated prosecutions, and that 12 others had been revised to expand their scope through the use of deliberately vague wording.

In many cases, prosecutors have also switched from pursuing “lighter” charges in favour of more severe offences. For example, defendants who would previously have been charged with “wilful damage to property” are now more commonly convicted of “terrorism” or “sabotage”, both of which carry life sentences.

Summarising the findings, the report’s authors said that political prisoners in Russia were “effectively singled out as a separate group, treated with particular cruelty by the authorities”, arguing that political prosecutions in Russia were becoming far removed from “general law enforcement practices”.

According to another human rights NGO, OVD-Info, at least 4,800 people are currently imprisoned or being prosecuted for political crimes in Russia — although the figure represents only those whose cases can be independently verified.

Memorial itself currently tracks 1,668 verified cases, while the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in Russia, Mariana Katzarova, has repeatedly called for the release of over 2,000 political prisoners held in Russian jails.

Russian courts generally don’t publish information about politically sensitive cases involving treason or espionage, making tracking cases difficult. In its 2025 annual report, OVD-Info warned that “the scope for confident statements about repression” was shrinking as the amount of information concealed by the Russian government increases.