Moscow City Court upholds eight-year in-absentia sentence for journalist Ksenia Luchenko over war "fakes"

The Moscow City Court on Thursday upheld the sentence of journalist Ksenia Luchenko, who was convicted in absentia and given eight years in prison for spreading “knowingly false information” about the Russian armed forces, the court’s press service told the state news agency RIA Novosti.

The case

• Moscow’s Gagarinsky District Court sentenced Luchenko in absentia in March. It also banned her from administering websites for four years. She appealed, and the appeal court found the verdict lawful.
• According to the court, as cited by RIA Novosti, Luchenko published material about the actions of the Russian army on the territory of another state on the website of an “undesirable organisation” and in a messenger. The prosecution describes this material as false; these are the authorities’ claims.
• The Justice Ministry added Luchenko to its registry of “foreign agents” in May 2025; Rosfinmonitoring later put her on its list of “terrorists and extremists”.

Because the trial took place in her absence, the sentence can only be enforced if she returns to Russia or is detained.

Sardaana News editorial position

Prison terms handed down to journalists who write about the war from abroad are part of the Russian state’s revenge on anti-war emigrants. Such verdicts are meant to silence those who tell the world about the war and the repressions inside Russia, and to cut readers in Russia off from independent information.