In the Urals, a taxi driver has been sent to a pre-trial detention centre on charges of “treason.” According to Mediazona, he was tortured.

The Verkh-Isetsky District Court in Yekaterinburg has sent 42-year-old taxi driver Andrey Voloshin to a pre-trial detention centre on charges of “treason” (Article 275 of the Criminal Code). Mediazona reports this.

Voloshin was detained on the morning of 22 October as he was leaving a police station, where he had gone to collect his phone, which had been seized in connection with another criminal case. According to Mediazona, after his arrest, the man was beaten on his body and head, his hands were tied with handcuffs, and he was suffocated with plastic bags. The outlet reports that he was brought to court bearing signs of torture: there were marks from the handcuffs on his wrists, red streaks on his neck, traces of blows to his face, and bruises on his stomach.

Mediazona found out that the new case may be linked to a photograph on Voloshin’s phone, which he had taken while working at the Novator plant, a factory connected with the military industry.

In February 2025, Voloshin was fined 30,000 rubles (about US$320) under the article on the “discrediting” of the military because of six images on VKontakte with “caricatures of ‘SVO supporters.’” In April 2026, he was charged under a criminal case for repeated “discrediting” of the armed forces (part 1 of Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code) because of two comments on social media. In August, a court fined Voloshin 150,000 rubles (about US$1,600) in connection with this case.