Russia detains journalist Svetlana Khustik for ‘fake’ news about Ukraine war

New York, October 1, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Russian authorities to end the prosecution of Russian journalist Svetlana Khustik, who faces up to 10 years on charges of spreading “fake” information about Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and to release her immediately.

On September 30, a court in the east-central city of Krasnoyarsk placed her under arrest for two months, pending investigation. Khustik, a local freelance journalist, faces imprisonment under Part 2, Article 207.3 of the criminal code. 

“The criminal case against Svetlana Khustik is yet more evidence that Russian authorities have no shame in imprisoning journalists for their work,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Russian authorities must drop all charges against Khustik and release her immediately, along with all imprisoned journalists.”

According to the authorities, who posted a video of the journalist being detained, Khustik had published an interview in May 2023 that contained “fake” news about the Russian army in an online media outlet the government calls a “foreign agent” in exchange for 64,000 rubles (US$775). Russian state news agency TASS said the outlet was Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Siberia-focused project Sibir.Realii.

The Russian Ministry of Justice added RFE/RL to its foreign agents register in 2017. During her court hearing, Khustik confirmed that she had worked with the outlet until 2023, but said she stopped after authorities labeled it “undesirable” in February 2024. According to independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, the charges against Khustik stem from an editor’s note in the May 2023 interview about a Russian missile killing 23 people in the central Ukrainian city of Uman on April 28, 2023. 

In the last few years, Khustik has covered the environment, culture, and social issues for a range of outlets, including independent news websites Takie Dela and Kedr.

Russia was the fifth worst jailer of journalists worldwide, with at least 30 behind bars as of December 1, 2024, according to CPJ’s annual global prison census. Of these, six were jailed for producing so-called fake news.

Nika Novak, another RFE/RL journalist, is serving a four-year prison sentence on charges that she’d had “confidential cooperation with a foreign organization.” 

CPJ did not receive a response to its request for comment sent via email to the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia for Krasnoyarsk Krai and the Republic of Khakassia.