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64-year-old trade union activist Oleg Tyryshkin died on 4 February in a hospital in Kemerovo, a large city in Siberia, after being transferred there from remand prison SIZO-4 in Anzhero-Sudzhensk. This was reported by SOTAvision, citing his common-law wife, Galina Arysheva.
Tyryshkin was due to be released in October 2026. However, he was transferred from the penal colony to a remand prison, after the security forces informed him about a new criminal case opened against him over comments he had left on social media.
“They kept looking, looking for something. They just couldn’t let it go,” his wife said.
The elderly activist regularly reported headaches and back pain, weakness and a general worsening of his health. At the same time, he was constantly moved from one facility to another.
“He was moved from the colony to a psychiatric hospital, then back again. Sometimes we didn’t even know where he was. He told us over the phone that he was in the remand centre,” said Arysheva.
On 4 February, Tyryshkin experienced heart problems. He was taken to a hospital in Kemerovo, where he soon died. His wife was only told about his death on 8 February.
In December 2024, Tyryshkin was sentenced to two years in a general regime penal colony for “justification of terrorism” (Article 205.2 of the Russian Criminal Code). The case was triggered by his comment on VKontakte about the killing of Chechnya’s leader Akhmat Kadyrov. Kadyrov was killed in 2004 during a terrorist attack at a stadium in Grozny.
“It was about Kadyrov, the father Kadyrov, who was blown up at the stadium. Someone had written: ‘Look, he was blown up there.’ I just replied: ‘Blown up—serves him right. He killed many Russian soldiers.’ That’s all,” Tyryshkin recounted of his comment.
The elderly activist was given a real prison sentence, despite having a brain cyst and an organic personality disorder.
In March 2025, the sentence was upheld. Tyryshkin took part in the court hearing via video call from the remand centre. He spoke about poor health and lay on the cell floor during the hearing: “My legs don’t work any more. I don’t know what to do. Why do I have to suffer like this?”
The judge accused the elderly activist of faking his symptoms.
- Tyryshkin was also prosecuted three times for administrative offences over comments critical of the authorities and security forces. He told OVD-Info that he had been beaten by security officers during one detention and subjected to smear campaigns by pro-government media.
- Before retiring, Tyryshkin was a miner and a trade union activist. In the late 1990s, he took part in blocking the Trans-Siberian Railway together with other miners. In 2009, he headed the independent miners’ union in Anzhero-Sudzhensk. Tyryshkin also worked with the Action medical workers’ union, assisting hospital cleaners and junior nurses in 2019 when they were being forced to agree to transfer to cleaning roles.