Russia places Meduza publisher Galina Timchenko on wanted list

The Russian Investigative Committee has announced that the publisher of Meduza, a Russian‐ and English‐language independent news website headquartered in Riga, Galina Timchenko, has been placed on an international wanted list.

Timchenko is accused of organising the activities of an “undesirable” organisation, Meduza reports.

On October 29, the Investigative Committee stated that the investigation had been completed and that “the criminal case has been submitted for trial.”

The criminal case against the Meduza publisher became public in May 2025.

According to investigators, in September 2024 and March 2025, Timchenko published videos online “to create protest sentiment among citizens and to involve them in the activities of an organisation designated as undesirable in Russia.”

The committee did not specify which videos were in question.

In June, the Interior Ministry placed Timchenko on a wanted list, and in July, Moscow’s Cheryomushki District Court ordered her arrest in absentia.

Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office declared Meduza an “undesirable organisation” in 2023, and in 2024, the Ministry of Justice labelled Timchenko a “foreign agent.”

By Jeyhun Aghazada