Ornithologist Sofya Rozenfeld has been sentenced to three and a half years in a penal colony for making donations to the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK).

The Gagarinsky District Court of Moscow has sentenced Doctor of Biological Sciences and senior researcher at the Institute of Ecology and Evolution Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Sofya Rozenfeld, to three and a half years in a penal colony in a case concerning the financing of an “extremist” organisation (part 1, article 282.3 of the Criminal Code). Mediazona reports. The scientist was taken into custody after the verdict was announced. The prosecutor had requested five years in a penal colony.

The case is connected to two donations of 1,000 rubles (about US$11) each that Rozenfeld made to the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) in August and September 2021. The ornithologist explained that at the time, she was on a long scientific expedition without means of communication and stopped her regular donations as soon as she learned that FBK had been declared an “extremist” organisation.

Rozenfeld did not deny setting up recurring donations, but maintained that she had not intended to support extremism. According to the scientist, she donated to FBK solely because of its anti-corruption efforts.

“I believe that any public help here will be necessary. In my own work, even in areas related to scientific research and conservation, I have seen what monstrous forms this evil can take. And it seemed to me that any help towards combating corruption would be a good thing,” she said.

Sofya Rozenfeld is one of Russia’s leading experts on Arctic waterfowl. She opposed a draft law that would weaken the ban on killing animals listed in the Red Book.