Moscow court sentences famous Russian blogger to 8 years in prison

The Meshchansky District Court of Moscow has sentenced blogger Ilya Varlamov to eight years in prison and a fine of 99 million rubles ($1.25 million). 

He was found guilty under two criminal charges — evading the obligations of a foreign agent and spreading false information about the Russian army, Caliber.Az reports, citing Russian media.

Varlamov has been arrested in absentia and placed on the international wanted list.

The case against Varlamov was opened in November 2024. Initially, he was only charged with evading foreign agent obligations. Moscow prosecutors justified the criminal prosecution by saying that he had been twice held administratively liable for violating foreign agent activity regulations (Part 4, Article 19.34 of the Code of Administrative Offenses), yet “in violation of legal requirements” continued posting on social media without indicating the required status.

In early July, prosecutors announced that Varlamov had also been charged with spreading false information about the army. According to the authorities, while abroad and “motivated by political hatred,” he published a video on a video hosting platform containing “knowingly false information” about Russia’s Armed Forces.

The Russian Ministry of Justice designated Varlamov as a foreign agent in March 2023, claiming that he “spread false information about decisions and policies of public authorities, and received support from foreign sources.” Varlamov attempted to challenge the ministry’s decision in court, seeking to have his name removed from the foreign agent registry, but his appeal was rejected.

In summer 2024, Moscow courts fined Varlamov twice, 30,000 rubles each time, over Telegram posts without the foreign agent label. Earlier, a protocol had been drawn up against him under the article on “discrediting the Russian army” (Part 1, Article 20.3.3 of the Criminal Code).

In February, the Meshchansky Court of Moscow ordered the seizure of funds from Varlamov’s bank accounts, without stating the reasons for this decision.

Ilya Varlamov is a YouTube blogger producing videos about travel, urbanism, and politics. After the start of the military operation in Ukraine, he left Russia.

By Khagan Isayev