Mikhail Zygar

Affiliated media: Journalist, Writer

Incident date: December 16, 2025

Attack type:

• Criminal/administrative prosecution excluding (1), (2) and (3)

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Mediazona

Location: Russia, Moscow, Moscow

Additional information:

The Basmanny District Court in Moscow has registered an administrative protocol against journalist and writer Mikhail Zygar, accusing him of participating in the activities of an “undesirable” organisation. It is not known what specifically triggered the case. In February 2024, the Prosecutor General’s Office designated the XZ Foundation, which works to counter propaganda, as an “undesirable” organisation. With the foundation’s support, Zygar and film director Ilya Khrzhanovsky produced a video series entitled Great Russian Villains. In July 2024, a Moscow court sentenced Zygar in absentia to eight and a half years in a general-regime penal colony in a case related to alleged “war fakes”.