Human rights defender jailed for 15 days over Instagram logo on their website

The Meshchansky District Court in Moscow has sentenced former Gulagunet human rights project member Denis Soldatov to 15 days’ detention, having found him guilty under the article on publicly displaying prohibited extremist symbols (Article 20.3 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offences). This was reported by the Baza channel, which is linked to law enforcement.

The grounds for the case were a post on 15 December 2025 on the “Gulag-Info” website, under which the logo of the social network Instagram (owned by Meta, which is designated as an extremist organisation in Russia) was found.

During the hearing, Soldatov noted that the logo had already been removed and the site shut down. The court stated that this did not cancel out the violation.