Nikita Zhuravel

A resident of Volgograd. On May 21, 2023, he was detained and remanded in custody the next day because, according to the investigation, he burned a Quran near a mosque in Volgograd. In a video taken after his detention, Zhuravel says that he was contacted by "SBU officers" and, acting on their instructions, purchased a Quran and burned it. After that, he "sent the video materials to the SBU officers," who "had to pay 10 000 rubles." The very next day, Zhuravel’s case was transferred to the Investigative Committee of Chechnya for further investigation. This decision was explained by reference to “numerous appeals from residents of the Chechen Republic requesting to be recognized as victims.” It later became known that in the video, which became the reason for the case, Zhuravel burns not the Quran itself, but "The Light of the Holy Quran" - a book containing the text of the Quran and its interpretation, which has been designated as extremist material in the Russian Federation. In August 2023, Zhuravel reported that he was beaten in a Grozny pre-trial detention centre by Adam Kadyrov, the 15-year-old son of the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov. Kadyrov Sr. later confirmed that his son had beaten Zhuravel. Ramzan Kadyrov and other senior officials in Chechnya said they were proud of Kadyrov Jr.'s act. On October 12, Ramzan Kadyrov published on his Telegram channel a video of his own conversation with Zhuravel, during which Zhuravel stated that he intended to convert to Islam. On February 27, 2024, Zhuravel was sentenced to three and a half years in a general regime colony. In October 2024, it became known that a case on charges of high treason had also been initiated against Zhuravel: according to the investigation, even before burning the Quran, he sent information to Ukraine about the movement of Russian military transport. On November 25, 2024, he was sentenced to 13 and a half years in a strict regime colony. In March 2026, Zhuravel's lawyer said that there had been no information about his client for three months. The Federal Penitentiary Service responded that they had already notified Zhuravel's mother of his whereabouts and that he had received a letter from his mother on January 21. His mother states that she did not receive any notifications and did not write letters to her son in the colony, as she does not know where he is.