Christian preacher Khristolub Vegan, who was convicted over a YouTube video, has died in a penal colony.

Christian preacher and blogger Khristolub Vegan has died in Correctional Colony No. 2 in Voronezh, a city in western Russia.

Today, the father of the deceased received a call from an officer at Penal Colony No. 2, who informed him that Khristolub had died. The Federal Penitentiary Service employee asked the man to come on Monday, 20 April, for his son’s body. He refused to disclose the cause or circumstances of Khristolub’s death.

The preacher had been in this colony since January. He was transferred there after a court decision to toughen his regime from a settlement colony to a general-regime colony. In Colony No. 2, the preacher was held under strict conditions of detention.

Khristolub’s father says that his son had not complained about any health issues. They last spoke by phone a few days ago.

In Colony-Settlement No. 10, where he had been before January, Khristolub had been repeatedly sent to the punishment cell from his very first days there, under various pretexts.

“As soon as I went in, they gave me five days in the punishment cell straight away. And just now—another 15. For absolutely nothing, for no reason at all. I agreed to everything and didn’t oppose anything. And they still gave me five, and now as of today—another 15 days in total isolation. For allegedly not holding my back straight at some point,” he said.

Khristolub feared they were planning to “let him rot” in the colony.

According to the court sentence, he was supposed to report to the settlement colony on his own on 13 October 2025. However, instead he held an anti-war protest on that day. After the protest, he was detained and arrested to be forcibly convoyed to serve his sentence.

• In February 2025, Khristolub was sentenced to three years in a settlement colony for “offending the feelings of believers” (Part 1, Article 148 of the Criminal Code) and “rehabilitation of Nazism” (subparagraph “v” of Part 2 and Part 4, Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code).
• The first charge was brought over a video containing harsh statements about Islam. The charge of “rehabilitation of Nazism” related to statements about recruiting prisoners for the war in Ukraine, about the glorification of Soviet soldiers and their crimes against civilians.
• Khristolub also posted videos on his YouTube channel condemning the war in Ukraine and criticising the Russian authorities and Vladimir Putin. In his final statement, the preacher said that for three years he had “used all his resources, strength, means and opportunities to stop the Rashist-Ukrainian war.”