Russia sentences journalist to 12 years on treason charges

A Moscow court has sentenced journalist Darya Shipacheva to 12 years in prison on treason charges, independent outlet Mediazona reported on Wednesday.

The 35-year-old was also fined 300,000 rubles (€3,315), and the court ordered for 1.5 million rubles (€16,600) to be confiscated from her.

The prison sentence was the full length requested by prosecutors, despite the fact that the defence asked the judge to take into account her guilty plea and cooperation with investigators.

The trial, which was held behind closed doors, reportedly lasted just an hour and a half. The official charges against Shipacheva have not been publicly revealed. A friend of hers told Mediazona that the case could be related to a financial transfer she made, though she didn’t know “whether it was sent to the Ukrainian army” or somewhere else.

Another source told the outlet T-Invariant that the case was built around a transfer she made to a relative she has in Ukraine, a civilian.

Shipacheva was detained on 23 April 2025 in her Moscow apartment and subsequently sent to a pre-trial detention facility in Rostov-on-Don. She has spent the last several weeks at Moscow's infamous Lefortovo Prison.

Previously, Shipacheva worked as a science and medical journalist, publishing work in RBC, Forbes Russia, Takie Dela, Wonderzine, and other outlets. While in pretrial detention, she has continued writing her master's thesis and hopes to defend it in the future.