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On 25 July, journalist and former vice president of the Free Buryatia Foundation, Anna Zueva, from Buryatia, was added to Rosfinmonitoring’s list of “terrorists and extremists.”

Previously, there had been no reports of a criminal case against Zueva. She believes that a case may have been opened against her under the article on “fake news” about the Russian army (Art. 207.3 of the Criminal Code). At the same time, her name is marked with an asterisk—this is used in the list to indicate persons prosecuted under terrorism-related articles.

“A certain G. B. Yandakov, who considers himself the senior investigator of the investigation department for the railway district of Ulan-Ude, was eagerly expecting me in office N412 on 10 July. The day before, he sent a summons stating that I was being called in for questioning as a ‘suspect,’” Zueva wrote on her Facebook page.

In addition, the journalist’s 77-year-old mother was called in for a discussion by phone. The woman refused and suggested they send her a written summons instead.

“What do I feel in view of yet another round of repression because of my journalism and anti-war work? Overall, not much… Perhaps just mild puzzlement. Does the Russian government really believe that if it puts me on a ridiculous list and sentences me to 5–10 years, I will be frightened, lock my YouTube channel and fall silent?” wrote Zueva.

In November 2024, the Ministry of Justice added Zueva to its list of “foreign agents.” Afterwards, she has been fined at least five times by courts under administrative protocols for “foreign agent” legislation violations (Art. 19.34 of the Administrative Offences Code). In July 2024, Zueva was fined five thousand roubles (approx. US$56) under the article on participation in the activities of an “undesirable organisation” due to her work with the Free Buryatia Foundation, which was declared “undesirable” in 2023.

  • Since 2019, Zueva has hosted her own YouTube channel, which now has more than 70,000 subscribers. Previously, she was a TV presenter at the Buryat channel ATV. In September 2019, Zueva announced her departure from the channel, citing the lack of coverage of protests that were taking place in Ulan-Ude, a major city in eastern Siberia, at that time. In 2023, the journalist left Russia. She was vice president of the Free Buryatia Foundation for a while, but in November 2024 she left the organisation.

The story has been updated to clarify that Zueva’s name is marked with an asterisk in the list