The convicted journalist from “Rosderzhava” has had their strict-regime sentence replaced with a settlement colony.

The Kovrov City Court in the Vladimir region has granted a request from Yan Katelevsky, a journalist from the Moscow region, to ease the conditions of his sentence. A reader of OVD-Info drew attention to the information about this decision, published in the court’s records.

The court considered the request on 15 January. The records indicate the decision will come into force on 31 January.

Now, Katelevsky is to be transferred from a high-security penal colony to a settlement colony.

The journalist is currently being held in Correctional Colony No. 6 in the Vladimir region. He has already spent five and a half years in detention.

In November 2023, Katelevsky and another journalist from the Rosderzhava project, Alexander Dorogov, were sentenced to 9.5 and 10.5 years respectively in a high-security colony. They were convicted under articles regarding large-scale extortion (para. “b,” part 3, art. 163 of the Criminal Code) and insulting a public official (art. 319 of the Criminal Code).

The case was initiated after a complaint by road police officer Pavel Gorokhov. He claimed that Katelevsky and Dorogov were extorting 1.3 million roubles (about US$14,000) from him in exchange for not publishing critical material about him, and that they tried to provoke him and another road police officer with insults.

The defendants did not admit guilt and said the case was fabricated. In their view, they were being persecuted for their journalistic work and investigations, which they published online.

The third defendant, Dmitry Filimonov, said that he incriminated Katelevsky and Dorogov under pressure from law enforcement officers. Unlike his colleagues, he received a suspended sentence. Additionally, the key witness, the wife of officer Gorokhov, withdrew her testimony.

• The Rosderzhava project, created by activists from the Moscow region, brought together bloggers who reported on corruption, violations in courts and law enforcement agencies, as well as issues with utilities and the environment. Journalists from the project carried out their own investigations and published them on YouTube.
• Katelevsky and Dorogov repeatedly reported on violations by officer Gorokhov in their videos; Gorokhov later became the victim in their case. They suspected him of being involved in corruption because he owned property that did not match his official income.