Valery Kachin, a scientist convicted of treason, has declared a dry hunger strike following violence at the pre-trial detention centre.

Valery Kachin, a geodesist, who was sentenced to 14 years in a penal colony on treason charges (Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code), has declared a dry hunger strike in Detention Centre No. 1 in Udmurtia. According to him, he refused both food and water after experiencing physical violence and abuse from the detention centre staff. This was reported by “First Department.”

Kachin said that he is held in solitary confinement almost continuously. Initially, he was given seven days, then another ten, followed by two consecutive 15-day terms. According to the scientist, detention centre staff also force him to lift and lower a heavy bed himself, conduct night checks, and confiscate his belongings.

On the morning of 21 October, after a conflict with staff, Kachin said he was knocked to the floor. He hit his face, and was left with grazes on his elbows and knees. After this, the scientist declared a dry hunger strike. “First Department” writes that he now weighs around 60 kilograms (132 lbs) at a height of 182 centimetres.

• Kachin was detained in Birobidzhan, a city in the Russian Far East, in the autumn of 2022 and sent to the Moscow detention centre “Lefortovo.” Before his arrest, he worked as a geodesist, at the Birobidzhan city hall and the Bastak Nature Reserve. On social media, he supported Ukraine, Alexei Navalny and protests in Belarus. Kachin linked the persecution of him in part to his stance on the war.
• In January 2025, a court in Birobidzhan sentenced Kachin to 14 years in a maximum-security colony. According to the FSB’s version, Kachin gave a representative of the Ukrainian special services information about critically important infrastructure in the Jewish Autonomous Region.
• In September 2025, Kachin had already declared a dry hunger strike after spending more than two months in the punishment cell at Penal Colony-8 “Khokhryaki.” He later said that during the strike, his weight dropped to 53 kilograms (117 lbs), and that his heart and kidneys suffered the most.

26 October, 15:28 Valery Kachin has ended his hunger strike. According to the scientist, in 3.5 days he lost 9 kilograms (20 lbs), and his condition worsened: “this time the hunger strike affected my ureter and intestines.”

This news has been updated following information about the end of the hunger strike.