Week ending 8 May 2026
“The authorities must urgently launch an independent and effective investigation into these allegations, hold all those suspected to be responsible to account in fair proceedings, and ensure that Azat Miftakhov is protected from further violence, including torture and other ill-treatment. Reports that prison staff and inmates were involved in the attack expose a system where violence and cruelty are deployed, encouraged or tolerated by the prison administration as tools of intimidation and coercion. This is often compounded by sexual violence and sexualized threats, which explicitly target LGBTI prisoners and are used more widely – tactics associated with some of the most repressive practices of the GULAG era. Azat Miftakhov’s case is emblematic of the acute risks faced by prisoners singled out by the administration. In May 2023, his intimate photographs were reportedly distributed by members of the authorities among other inmates, thereby seeking to subject him to the cruelty of the informal prison hierarchy, to the harshest conditions and sexual violence at the hands of other inmates.”
– Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, reacting to reports that Azat Miftakhov, a mathematician and anarchist activist, was subjected to torture, including sexualized abuse, in a Russian penal colony
Source: ‘Russia: Urgently investigate torture allegations of imprisoned anarchist Azat Miftakhov,’ Amnesty International, 5 May 2026
Background from Amnesty International: On 5 May 2026, the support group of Azat Miftakhov, a former Moscow State University postgraduate, published a detailed account alleging that he was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, and sexual violence including threats of rape following his transfer to Penal Colony No. 18 “Polar Owl” in Harp, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. On 21 April 2026, one day after his arrival at the colony, Miftakhov was reportedly unlawfully ordered to perform a cleaning task expressly intended to humiliate him. After his refusal, he was allegedly restrained by staff and other inmates, beaten and struck with a wooden hammer on the soles of his bare feet. He was reportedly then stripped naked and threatened with rape and suffocation, while officers and inmates subjected him to repeated physical assaults. According to his testimony, electric shocks were administered to his toes, with the abuse repeated multiple times when he refused to obey. Azat Miftakhov has previously reported torture following his first detention in 2019 over his alleged involvement in the 2018 arson attempt targeting an office of the ruling party United Russia in Moscow, which caused no damage. In September 2025, immediately upon his release, he was re-arrested and charged with “justifying terrorism” over comments he had allegedly made while in detention and was sentenced to a further four years in prison.
“Iryna Levchenko’s case exemplifies the Kremlin’s systematic repression in the occupied territories with the aim of silencing all outspoken media voices. Even a retired journalist is arrested and jailed for her past services to the news media and for her independence in her work. RSF calls for the charges against her to be dropped and for her release.
– Pauline Maufrais, RSF Ukraine desk officer
Source: ‘Retired Ukrainian journalist Iryna Levchenko held by Kremlin for past three years,’ RSF, 5 May 2026
Background from RSF: Iryna Levchenko, a retired Ukrainian journalist now aged 64, was abducted on a street in Russian-occupied territory exactly three years ago, on 6 May 2023, and has been a Kremlin prisoner ever since, awaiting a trial that has been repeatedly postponed. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for her immediate and unconditional release. She is “holding up,” her sister Olena said when asked about Iryna’s Kremlin prison ordeal, now entering its fourth year. News from the former reporter is brief, consisting of short letters written from a cell that reach her loved ones thanks to volunteers. Iryna Levchenko’s prison journey can be pieced together thanks to her sister’s constant monitoring. Abducted by Russian forces in broad daylight on 6 May 2023 in Melitopol, an occupied city in southeastern Ukraine, she has been detained without trial ever since. Initially held in Melitopol, she was transferred in 2025 to a detention centre in Donetsk, another occupied city in eastern Ukraine, and then in 2026 to Simferopol, in occupied Crimea. She awaits a trial behind closed doors after being accused in January 2026 of “espionage” – a charge often used by the Kremlin to silence Ukrainian reporters in the occupied territories.
