Week-ending 3 October 2025
“The criminal case against Svetlana Khustik is yet more evidence that Russian authorities have no shame in imprisoning journalists for their work. Russian authorities must drop all charges against Khustik and release her immediately, along with all imprisoned journalists.”
– Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator.
Source: ‘Russia detains journalist Svetlana Khustik for ‘fake’ news about Ukraine war,’ CPJ, 1 October 2025
Background from CPJ: The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Russian authorities to end the prosecution of Russian journalist Svetlana Khustik, who faces up to 10 years on charges of spreading “fake” information about Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and to release her immediately. On September 30, a court in the east-central city of Krasnoyarsk placed her under arrest for two months, pending investigation. Khustik, a local freelance journalist, faces imprisonment under Part 2, Article 207.3 of the criminal code. According to the authorities, who posted a video of the journalist being detained, Khustik had published an interview in May 2023 that contained “fake” news about the Russian army in an online media outlet the government calls a “foreign agent” in exchange for 64,000 rubles (US$775). Russian state news agency TASS said the outlet was Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Siberia-focused project Sibir.Realii.
