Nika Novak, a journalist and former editor-in-chief of the Zab.ru news outlet, has been sentenced to four years in prison by a court in Russia’s Zabaikalsky region. The charges against her stem from accusations of working with a foreign media organization, Russian media reported on Tuesday.
Novak was arrested in Moscow in December 2023 and later transferred nearly 4,700 kilometers (2,900 miles) to Chita, the capital of the Zabaikalsky region, where her closed-door trial began in October.
In a post on her Telegram channel, Novak revealed that she had been denied contact with her mother, who is listed as a witness in the case.
The court found Novak guilty of “confidential collaboration” with a foreign media organization, though the specific details of the organization have not been disclosed. Novak had also worked as a freelance correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), which was cited in reports.
Novak is among the few individuals prosecuted under Russia’s 2022 law that criminalizes collaboration with foreign entities. The human rights organization Memorial has classified Novak as a political prisoner.
While Novak has supported pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine since 2014 and endorsed Russia’s 2022 invasion, she also expressed concern in 2022 over the suffering of Ukrainian civilians, lamenting that “peaceful Ukrainians are falling asleep and waking up to the sound of shelling.”
An earlier version of this article mistakenly suggested Novak was accused of working with a foreign state. She was, in fact, accused of collaborating with a foreign media organization.
