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Journalist and civil rights activist Mikhail Feldman has been released from prison. This was reported by the Telegram channel “Word of Defence.”

“I just didn’t expect that I would be released earlier than the term I was assigned. As far as I know, some kind of mistake has occurred. I am very happy to be able to walk free. Unfortunately, not to freedom—because my country is still not free. But I will direct all my modest efforts towards helping it become free,” he commented.

The activist served his sentence in Penal Colony No. 8 in Kaliningrad Region (a Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea).

In March 2024, Feldman was found guilty under the article on repeated “discrediting” of the Russian army (part 1 of article 280.3 of the Criminal Code) due to ten anti-war posts on VKontakte. He was sentenced to two years in a general regime colony and banned from administering websites for two years. In June 2024, the verdict was upheld.

Feldman was detained in May 2023, and as a pre-trial measure was placed under restrictions on specific activities. Shortly before the verdict, the journalist was sent to a pre-trial detention centre (SIZO). The change in pre-trial restrictions was due in part to the fact that Feldman had bought wedding rings at a shopping centre, but the penitentiary system’s monitoring registered that, at that moment, he was close to the city administration.

A case under part 1 of Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code can only be initiated if a person already has at least one decision under a similar administrative offence. Feldman had previously been prosecuted under this article (part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code) after attending an anti-war rally in March 2022, when he was fined 30,000 rubles (about US$330).

  • In 2020, Feldman was sentenced to two months of restriction of liberty under the article on insulting state symbols (Article 329 of the Criminal Code) because of posts on social media: he posted images of the Russian tricolour with the caption “wipe your feet,” the Russian coat of arms with an abusive caption, and also an image of the flag next to a human anus. During his final statement in this case, Feldman, in the courtroom, pulled a Russian Federation flag from his jacket pocket, threw it on the floor and trampled it, saying: “Wipe your feet!” Because of this, a new case was opened against him under the article on insulting state symbols. In March 2021, Feldman was sentenced to six months of restriction of liberty. The appellate court later replaced this with a five-month suspended sentence.
  • In 2015, Feldman was convicted under articles on possession of explosives (Article 222 of the Criminal Code) and hooliganism by a group motivated by political hatred or enmity (part 2 of Article 213 of the Criminal Code) for hanging a German flag on the garage of the FSB office in Kaliningrad. At that time, he was sentenced to one year, one month and 23 days in a penal colony, but was released in court with time served in pre-trial detention.