The Olenegorsk City Court of the Murmansk Region sentenced Dmitry Semenov, a former volunteer of Navalny’s headquarters, to three years of probation in the case of financing extremism (Part 1 of Article 282.3 of the Criminal Code) due to donations to the Anti-Corruption Foundation. Mediazona found information about this in the court database. According to security officials, Semenov sent FBK seven donations of 500 rubles each.

The Vyborg District Court of St. Petersburg fined local resident Dmitry Bitkov 45 thousand rubles under the protocol on “discrediting” the army (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code). This was reported by the press service of the city courts. A report was drawn up against the man because of the song “Anthem of the Doomed (Goyda, Orcs!)” by the group “Nogu Svolo.” Bitkov posted it on his VKontakte page on November 19, 2022.

Photo: Egor Aleev / TASS As 2025 draws to a close, Russian officials are projecting an image of an army on the rise, claiming territorial victories and a surge of young recruits, maintaining a rigid negotiating stance. However, data collected by Mediazona, the BBC Russian Service and a team of volunteers reveals a different reality.

The Baltic Fleet Military Court sentenced 23-year-old native of the Altai Territory, Igor Samok, who lived in the Kaliningrad region, to 24 years in prison on charges of treason, creating a sabotage community, organizing sabotage and illegal access to personal data. This was reported by the press services of the court and the regional prosecutor's office , Mediazona noted. He will have to spend the first 6 years of his sentence in prison, and the remaining term in a maximum security colony.

Dozens of Russian regions on the eve of the New Year holidays announced a complete ban or restrictions on the use of fireworks. The measures differ markedly in severity: if in some regions the launch of pyrotechnics is completely prohibited and fines are threatened, then in others we are only talking about recommendations and the cancellation of official events - including often under the pretext of “solidarity” with Russian soldiers who are fighting in Ukraine.

The FSB press service reported the murder of a resident of Nalchik, who was suspected of preparing to explode a section of the republic's gas distribution system.

Cards of trials on claims to declare people missing or dead began to disappear from the websites of courts in the regions, Mediazona noted. Now on the websites of the courts of 50 Russian regions it is impossible to find a single claim registered in 2025 to declare a person missing. At the same time, just a month ago, on the websites of the courts of these regions, Mediazona saw information about almost 44 thousand such cases for 2025.

The Moscow Regional Court sentenced the defendants in the case of torture in the Saratov prison hospital (OTB-1) to terms ranging from 12 years to life imprisonment. This is reported on the court's website. The court found all the defendants guilty. Pavel Gatsenko was sentenced to 21 years in prison, Sergei Maltsev - 16 years. Convict Sergei Ananyev received life imprisonment.

On December 30, Vladimir Putin signed a decree on holding “special training” for “those in the mobilization reserve” in 2026. The law, which allows training for reservists in peacetime, came into force in November. At the stage of adoption of the document in the State Duma, it was argued that reservists would be able to be used to ensure the protection of “critically important facilities” - due to “increasing cases of the use of long-range drones” for attacks on Russian territory.

Photo: Alexander Reka / TASS Authorities in Kazakhstan have launched a mass crackdown on participants in the war in Ukraine. In 2025 alone, local security forces opened a record 700 criminal cases against citizens who enlisted in Russian military units.The courts make no distinction regarding where the accused served. They hand down identical sentences to fighters from the Wagner private military company and those who signed official contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defence.

Member of the Public Chamber of Russia, violinist Pyotr Lundstrem published a post in which he accused the commander of the 95th regiment of the 5th brigade of the 51st Army, Dmitry Ivankevich (call sign “Old Man”) of the murder of his subordinate, commander of the 2nd battalion and former employee of the State Border Service of Ukraine Yuri Burakov (“Sedoy”). Ivankevich, in turn, also died under unclear circumstances - Mediazona managed to independently confirm his death.

The FSB spoke about the detention of a “supporter of a terrorist organization” who, according to the intelligence service, was preparing a terrorist attack “in one of the schools in Adygea.” This is reported by TASS with reference to the FSB Public Relations Center. A citizen of one of the Central Asian countries was detained. It is alleged that he is a supporter of an “international terrorist organization” banned in Russia. The name of the organization is not mentioned.

The Central District Court of Chita fined Gramota LLC, which owns the Chitai-Gorod bookstore brand, 800 thousand rubles under the protocol on “LGBT propaganda” (Part 1 of Article 6.21 of the Administrative Code), MK in Chita reported , citing the court’s press service and its anonymous source.

The Zaporozhye Regional Court, established by the Russian authorities, sentenced a pensioner to 12 years in a maximum security colony in the case of transferring information about the deployment of Russian military personnel to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The Crimean prosecutor's office announced the verdict. According to the press service of the court, a pensioner from the Vasilyevsky district of the Zaporozhye region was found guilty of espionage (Article 276 of the Criminal Code).

The Central District Court of Chelyabinsk softened the preventive measure for the former vice-governor of the Sverdlovsk region Oleg Chemezov in the case of fraud with budget subsidies (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code). He will be transferred from the pre-trial detention center to house arrest, TASS reported , citing its correspondent in the courtroom. RBC Ekaterinburg previously reported that the ex-official's preventive measure could be softened, citing two sources.