According to data from the human rights organization Memorial, which a Russian court recently banned permanently, more than 5,000 people in Russia are victims of political repression. At least 68 of them have died in custody over the past decade and a half, including at least six since the start of 2026. For many people who have spoken out against the authorities or against the war in Ukraine, imprisonment has effectively become a death sentence. Meduza offers a brief account of each of these six people.
Roman Sidorkin
52 years old, died January 8
A former employee of a defense enterprise in the Kursk region, Sidorkin was detained in 2022 along with his wife Tatyana, who also worked at the facility. Russia’s Federal Security Service accused them of passing documentation and military hardware samples to Ukrainian intelligence and planning a sabotage operation — blowing up a railway line. In 2023, a court sentenced Roman Sidorkin to 17 years in prison; Tatyana received 13 years. A year later, authorities opened a new criminal case against Roman — for theft of military hardware from his enterprise — and extended his sentence to 23 years. In late 2025, Sidorkin developed bronchitis in prison, which progressed to pneumonia. He died in a hospital on January 8. His wife continues to serve her sentence.
Oleg Tyryshkin
64 years old, died February 4
A former miner and trade union activist from Anzhero-Sudzhensk in the Kemerovo region, Tyryshkin was fined several times after the start of the war over social media posts — photographs of Vladimir Putin in a Nazi uniform and comments about FSB officers. In 2023, authorities opened a criminal case against him for justifying terrorism, based on comments he had posted on VK about the assassination of Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov in 2004. He was sentenced to two years in a penal colony. At his appeal hearing, Tyryshkin complained about his health: “My legs have stopped working. I don’t know what to do. Why do I have to suffer like this?” Shortly afterward, authorities opened a new criminal case against him, again over social media comments. On February 4, 2026, Tyryshkin ”suffered a cardiac event” and died. His death was not publicly reported until April 24.
Alexander Dotsenko
65 years old, died February 19
A jewelry artist originally from Ukraine who lived in the city of Gatchina in the Leningrad region, Dotsenko was sentenced in 2024 to three years in a minimum-security prison colony. His wife, artist Anastasia Dyudyayeva, received a three-and-a-half-year sentence. Both were convicted on charges that they had planted leaflets reading “Hang Putin” in products at a Lenta supermarket in St. Petersburg — charges they denied. On February 12, 2026, Dotsenko suffered a heart attack at the penal settlement and was taken to a hospital, where he died a week later. Dyudyayeva continues to serve her sentence in Karelia. After her husband’s death, she wrote him a letter ending with the words: “That I got to meet you was also a gift of fate. Thank you, my love!”
Vladimir Osipov
56 years old, died in March
A resident of the Moscow-region city of Dzerzhinsky, Osipov was detained in 2024 and sentenced to six and a half years in a minimum-security prison colony on charges of spreading false information about the military. The case stemmed from posts on Odnoklassniki in which he allegedly accused Putin of organizing the explosion on the Crimean Bridge and accused the Russian army of killing children in the Donbas. Because of Osipov’s high blood pressure, an ambulance was called at nearly every court hearing; his complaints about his health led the judge to remove him from the courtroom on several occasions and even deny him the right to deliver a final statement. On March 18, the human rights project Tyuremny Advokat reported that Osipov had died in a pretrial detention center. The cause of death was listed as a heart attack (myocardial infarction).
Andrei Akuzin
53 years old, died April 8
An artist from Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Akuzin was arrested on April 2, 2026. According to his friend, director Tatyana Frolova, the reason was a certain “year-old” comment on social media. Akuzin turned 53 on April 7, and the following day he hanged himself in his cell, Frolova said. She added that Akuzin had long been opposed to the Russian authorities, “hated” the war with Ukraine, and had repeatedly told her in messages that “the only free protest today is suicide.” “He was a wonderful, defiant person, like Pavel Kushnir,” Frolova said of her late friend.
Vegan Khristolyub Bozhiy
43 years old, died in April
A YouTube blogger from the Voronezh region who called himself an anarchist and religious dissident, Khristolyub was sentenced in February 2025 to three years in a minimum-security prison colony over a video that mentioned war crimes committed by Soviet soldiers during World War II. In October 2025, on the day he was supposed to report to the prison colony, Khristolyub staged a one-person picket holding a sign reading “Jesus commanded us to love our enemies, not kill them.” He was taken to prison and placed in a punishment cell. His death was reported on April 17; he was found hanged in the punishment cell. His relatives believe Khristolyub could not have taken his own life given his religious convictions. While still free, he had said that he would go on a hunger strike in prison and advised his family to conduct an independent examination in the event of his death.
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