The Orenburg-based lawyer convicted under the military “fake news” law has spent more than two weeks in a punishment cell.

58-year-old lawyer Sergei Salazkin, who is serving a sentence at Penal Settlement No. 12 in Orenburg Region, was sent to a punishment cell. His lawyer reported this to OVD-Info.

Salazkin was kept there from 20 April to 6 May. The lawyer said his client received four disciplinary actions.

First, he was given three days for not being present at the sewing workshop—Salazkin had gone to the toilet at the time. Then he received another seven days because, while in the punishment cell, he took the internal rules out of a file. The last two sanctions were for not cleaning his cell and for dust found inside it.

The administration is now seeking to have Salazkin’s regime toughened and to transfer him to a general regime colony.

The lawyer has been at Penal Settlement No. 12 since August 2025. There, his letters were delayed or not given to him at all. According to a friend, staff told Salazkin he wasn’t receiving any letters, adding: “Everyone’s forgotten about you long ago, yet you keep expecting letters.”

• Last spring, the lawyer was sentenced to one and a half years in a penal settlement under the “military fake news” law (part 1 of article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). He was convicted over posts on Odnoklassniki about missile strikes on Kramatorsk and Chernihiv.
• Salazkin practised as a private lawyer for more than 30 years. On social media, he often wrote about political prisoners’ cases. Before his arrest, he also cared for 24 cats. After sentencing, he had to arrange for them to be looked after elsewhere while he was imprisoned.