A Moscow court has sentenced journalist Daria Shipacheva to 12 years in prison after finding her guilty of treason, in a closed-door trial that lasted just 90 minutes, according to the exiled outlet Mediazona and other independent Russian media reports.
The science journalist, who was born in Ukraine and worked as a freelance medical reporter for Forbes Russia as well as RBC and Takie Dela, was arrested in April 2025 and held in a detention facility in Rostov-on-Don before being transferred to Moscow’s Lefortovo prison. The Moscow City Court handed down the verdict on Wednesday in a proceeding entirely closed to the public.
According to the independent science outlet T-Invariant, which cited five sources close to Shipacheva, the treason charge stemmed from a wire transfer she made to a civilian family member in Ukraine. Investigators allegedly reinterpreted the purpose of the transfer and built the entire case around it.
“As far as we know, investigators took a transfer she made to a civilian family member, reinterpreted its purpose and built the entire treason charge around it,” an unidentified acquaintance of the journalist told T-Invariant.
Shipacheva’s family and court-appointed attorney initially decided against releasing details about her arrest or trial out of concern that public attention could lead to a harsher sentence. However, the journalist recently asked supporters to invite reporters to the sentencing hearing, according to a friend quoted by T-Invariant.
Her defense team had requested a lighter sentence on the grounds that she had cooperated with law enforcement and pleaded guilty. The judge rejected the plea. The independent outlet Sotavision published video showing Shipacheva’s shocked reaction as the verdict was read.
Between 2019 and 2025, Shipacheva worked as a freelance medical journalist, covering science and health for several of Russia’s leading publications. Before her arrest, she faced online harassment from members of the banned ultra-nationalist group “Male State” over her feminist views.
Shipacheva’s case is part of a broader crackdown on press freedom and dissent in Russia that has intensified since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian courts convicted a record 312 people on charges of treason, espionage, and illegal cooperation with a foreign state in the first half of 2026 alone, according to the exiled news outlet Vyorstka. That figure marks a dramatic increase from previous years and reflects the Kremlin’s expanding definition of what constitutes a threat to state security.
Independent journalists, academics, and ordinary Russians who maintain contact with relatives or colleagues abroad have become frequent targets of treason investigations. Legal experts say the charges are often based on routine transactions or communications that investigators reframe as hostile acts against the state.
Foreign journalists and press freedom organizations condemned the sentence. The case highlights the extreme risks faced by Russian journalists who continue to work within the country under increasingly repressive conditions. Since the start of the war, hundreds of media outlets have been shuttered, and dozens of journalists have been forced into exile or face criminal prosecution.
Shipacheva’s 12-year sentence is among the longest handed down to a journalist in Russia in recent years, signaling the Kremlin’s determination to crush independent reporting as the war in Ukraine grinds into its fifth calendar year.
Author: Pulse Of Nations Wire Desk
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