A journalist and author of the Newsader YouTube channel has been sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison.

On 11 June, the Krasnoflotsky District Court in Khabarovsk, a major city in the Russian Far East, sentenced anti-war journalist and so-called “foreign agent” Aleksandr Kushnar to eight years and one month in prison in absentia. This was reported to OVD-Info by the court’s press service.

The journalist was found guilty under articles on spreading “fake news” about the Russian army (subparagraph “d,” part 2, article 207.3 of the Criminal Code) and evading the obligations of a “foreign agent” (part 2, article 330.1 of the Criminal Code). He was also banned from engaging in any activity related to administering websites on the internet for four years.

It is unknown what exactly led to the criminal prosecution under the article concerning military “fake news.” In March 2024, it became known that he had been declared wanted “under the Criminal Code.” In January, Kushnar’s case was submitted to the court.

The journalist was labelled a “foreign agent” in September 2022. In October 2023 and August 2024, he was fined 30,000 and 35,000 roubles (approximately US$340 and US$400, respectively) for failing to submit a “foreign agent” report (part 2, article 19.34 of the Code of Administrative Offences).

Aleksandr Kushnar is the author of the Newsader YouTube news channel and a former journalist at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. As Mediazona reported, back in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea, the journalist, along with his family, moved to Lithuania. On his YouTube channel, among other topics, he discusses the war in Ukraine.