Russia drops 'fake news' case against children's hospice founder Lida Moniava

Russian investigators have dropped the criminal case against Lida Moniava, a prominent advocate for the care of critically ill children, finding no grounds for prosecution, her support group said on Tuesday, 6 October, citing her lawyer, The Moscow Times reported. Meduza reported that the case was closed for lack of corpus delicti.

The case

Moniava, founder of the Moscow charity Lighthouse (“Dom s mayakom”), which runs hospices for seriously ill children and young adults in the capital and the surrounding region, was arrested on 2 September. She was charged with spreading “false information” about the Russian military over a social media post about Ukrainian civilians killed in Russian attacks — an offence that carries up to 10 years in prison.

Her lawyer Mikhail Biryukov confirmed the decision, and an official notice closing the case was sent by post, the support group said. It thanked everyone who attended her hearing, wrote letters or spoke up for her, singling out hospice patients who came to court, some in wheelchairs or on ventilators. “This is a miracle. But it didn’t happen on its own,” the group wrote.

Back at Lighthouse

After her arrest Moniava had said she would step down as Lighthouse’s director and leave its board, while staying in Russia. On Wednesday Biryukov told RBC that, with the case closed, there was no reason for her to step down and she would remain director. After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 she also set up a foundation that helped people fleeing the war; it suspended work in 2025.

The Moscow Times noted that such an outcome is rare: in a February 2025 report, rights group OVD-Info said it knew of just over 20 cases in which anti-war criminal cases had been dropped at some stage since the start of the full-scale invasion.