Sergey Smirnov, the editor-in-chief of Mediazona, has been sentenced in absentia to one year in a penal colony.

A magistrate in Moscow has sentenced the editor-in-chief of Mediazona, Sergey Smirnov, in absentia to one year in a general regime penal colony for failing to fulfil the obligations of a “foreign agent” (part 2 of article 330.1 of the Criminal Code). Mediazona reports this from the courtroom.

Smirnov has also been banned from administering websites for two years. The prosecutor had requested one and a half years in a general regime colony for the journalist.

The criminal case was opened in 2024 over four posts in Smirnov’s Telegram channels which lacked the “foreign agent” label. These included reposts of posts by the Vyvozhuk project and Mediazona, a voice message about elections in Botswana, and a post about documentary film screenings on Russia in Vilnius.

The Ministry of Justice added Smirnov to the “foreign agents” register in September 2021. He was repeatedly fined for posts lacking the required label. Following the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Smirnov refused to attach it to his posts. In March 2025, he was declared wanted.