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The Preobrazhensky District Court in Moscow has sentenced Ilya Vasilyev (Arvi Haecker), head of the Moscow Zen Centre and a programmer, to eight years in a general-regime penal colony on charges of spreading “fake news” about the military (clause “d” part 2 art. 207.3 of the Russian Criminal Code). This was reported to OVD-Info by a supporter present in the courtroom.
In addition, Vasilyev has been banned from administering online resources for four years.
The prosecution had requested an eight-and-a-half-year general-regime sentence and a four-year ban on internet use. Vasilyev was represented in court by OVD-Info lawyer Gevorg Aleksanyan.
A criminal case against Vasilyev was opened in June 2024 because of two posts in English published on Facebook. In the same month, the court sent him to pre-trial detention. At the end of October, he was formally charged, but only for one post—about Vladimir Putin’s refusal of a Christmas truce in 2022. The other post—about the shelling of Dnipro in January 2023—was not included in the final charges.
Vasilyev faced pressure in pre-trial detention. He was denied visits from a Buddhist priest and refused medical assistance. In addition, his letters were not passed to recipients because he used the phrase “political prisoners.” According to a Federal Penitentiary Service officer, there are “no political prisoners in Russia, only prisoners.”
In February 2025, Vasilyev was placed in solitary confinement for 15 days for not placing his hands behind his back. The programmer himself linked this punishment to the provocative questions he asked an FSB officer, who appeared as a witness in his case.
You can support Ilya Vasilyev by writing him a letter through our “Vestochka” service or by regular mail at:
107996, Moscow, Matrosskaya Tishina St., 18, Federal State Institution SIZO-1, Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for Moscow
Vasilyev, Ilya Vladimirovich, born 1973