Due to swearing during a conversation with his wife, a convicted member of parliament from Primorye (a region in Russia’s Far East) was sent to a punishment cell.

Artyom Samsonov, a member of the Legislative Assembly of Primorsky Krai from the Communist Party (CPRF) who is serving a sentence, has been given seven days in a punitive isolation cell for swearing during a conversation with his wife, reported his sister, who is also his lawyer.

Later, she added in the same post that due to Samsonov’s illness, he will not be sent to the isolation cell (SHIZO) until Monday.

In April, the political prisoner reported that he had been diagnosed with skin cancer. Despite this, the court rejected a petition for the early release of Samsonov, which had been submitted by the Main Directorate of the Federal Penitentiary Service’s hospital in Primorsky Krai. The facility confirmed that he has an oncological illness listed among those that prevent prisoners from serving sentences.

In January 2025, after media coverage and intervention by the CPRF leadership, doctors replaced Samsonov’s aortic heart valve. The previous year, in 2024, doctors found a tumour in his chest, but at that time, proper treatment was not provided.

In 2022, Samsonov was sentenced to 13 years in a penal colony on charges of sexual abuse of a minor (section 'b', part 4, article 132 of the Russian Criminal Code). According to the prosecution, in 2018 he allegedly spoke about sex in front of an 11-year-old boy at a holiday resort and showed him a sex toy. The former deputy and his CPRF colleagues believe the case was fabricated in retaliation for his election victory. The defence noted that the item in question only appeared at the resort in 2019, when Samsonov was not present there.

24 November—Artyom Samsonov began a hunger strike in protest against being placed in the isolation cell, reported his support group.

‘Today I was placed in an isolation cell on orders from above. I consider this to be revenge for daring to sue Pre-trial Detention Centre No. 1, as a result of which the court forced the Federal Penitentiary Service to pay me 10,000 roubles (about US$110) as compensation for the violation of my rights. As a protest against this arbitrariness, I have gone on hunger strike,’ wrote the political prisoner.

1 December—Artyom Samsonov ended his hunger strike on 27 November, according to his lawyer.

The prisoner made this decision because he was sent to the isolation cell ‘on orders from above,’ not by the administration of the penal colony.

The lawyer commented on Samsonov’s condition: ‘He looks upbeat. Feels well. It’s cold in the isolation cell, but he is rescued by a warm jumper and socks knitted by the wife of a friend and fellow party member, E. Lyashenko.’