FSB's Fourth Service behind FBK donation cases against Russian scientists and lecturers, Mediazona finds

Criminal cases for “financing extremism” brought against Russian scientists and university lecturers over donations to the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) are being initiated by the 4th department of Directorate “P” of the FSB’s Fourth Service, Mediazona reported on 20 October 2026. Novaya Gazeta Europe also reported the findings. According to Mediazona, this unit started at least three such cases against scientists over the past year.

What the case files show

• Sofya Rosenfeld, an ornithologist at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, was sentenced by Moscow’s Gagarinsky District Court on 7 October to 3.5 years in a penal colony for two transfers of 1,000 rubles each to FBK. Mediazona says she is the third woman in Russia to receive a real prison term for donating to Navalny’s organisation.
• In her case, a Moscow “Centre E” officer, Fyodor Klapov, testified that in September 2025 he received “verification material” on Rosenfeld from the 4th department of Directorate “P” of the FSB’s Fourth Service. It said she was “possibly involved in financing FBK.” According to the case file, a senior officer of the same department named Zotkin filed a report “on the discovery of signs of a crime” on 28 August 2025.
• About a year ago a court in Dubna fined physicist Dmitry Kazakov 300,000 rubles for two transfers of 500 rubles each. According to the verdict, investigators became interested in him after a classified letter “from the 4th Service of UZKS FSB.” Mediazona notes it is not entirely clear which service was meant: the abbreviation UZKS points to the FSB’s Second Service, while the Fourth Service deals with “economic security.”
• An unnamed scientist facing a similar case told Mediazona that a Centre E officer had said “they handle Skoltech and the Higher School of Economics.”

Wider wave of cases

In spring 2026, Mediazona counted six “financing extremism” cases against Academy of Sciences staff reaching Moscow courts. It also counted at least three Skoltech specialists, three employees of Rosatom subsidiaries and two Higher School of Economics lecturers facing charges. One of the lecturers is 38-year-old mathematician Andrei Dymov, an HSE associate professor and senior researcher at the Steklov Mathematical Institute. Moscow’s Zyuzinsky District Court sentenced him in May 2026 to 3.5 years in a general-regime colony.

Background

• FBK is the anti-corruption organisation founded by opposition politician Alexei Navalny. On 9 June 2021, the Moscow City Court granted the prosecutor’s claim, liquidated FBK and banned Navalny’s regional offices. Russian media reported that the court had declared them “extremist” organisations. As RBC explained at the time, donors can face prosecution under Article 282.3 of the Criminal Code (financing extremist activity) regardless of the amount, with up to 10 years in prison. Prosecutors had accused the groups of seeking to destabilise Russia; Navalny’s team rejected the accusations and appealed.
• The FSB’s Fourth Service, also known as the Economic Security Service (SEB), deals with “economic security,” Mediazona writes. According to the Dossier Center, officers of its Directorate “P” provide “counterintelligence support for industry” and oversee state technology corporations such as Rostec, Rusnano and Roscosmos.
• In its review of 2025, OVD-Info (as reported by Meduza) recorded 46 new prosecutions that year over FBK donations, 120 people prosecuted in total, and 74 sentences handed down in 2025.

The FSB’s comment is not included in the Mediazona and Novaya Gazeta Europe reports.