New York, June 5, 2026—Russian authorities must immediately release journalist Aleksey Seregin and stop silencing independent voices in the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Friday.
On June 4, law enforcement officers in Yoshkar-Ola, the capital of Mari El Republic in western Russia, detained Seregin after beating him, confiscating his phone, and searching his home. The authorities took him for questioning to the local branch of Russia’s Investigative Committee, the law enforcement agency in charge of pretrial investigations. Seregin will be detained for at least 48 hours, according to independent, Russia-focused news outlet The Insider.
According to independent news outlet 7×7, a regional newsroom, Seregin is being prosecuted for “justifying terrorism” because of a 2024 comment in a Telegram chat about former Soviet air force general Dzhokhar Dudayev, who led the Chechen independence movement in the 1990s and was killed in 1996. The authorities claimed the comment “justified illegal armed groups in Chechnya in the 1990s.”
“The detention of journalist Aleksey Seregin in Russia is further evidence of the authorities’ determination to crush what remains of independent local journalism in the country,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Russian authorities must immediately release Aleksey Seregin and stop suppressing information they deem inconvenient.”
A source familiar with Seregin’s case told CPJ on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal that his detention is retaliation for his journalism.
He faces up to seven years in jail under Part 2, Article 205.2 of Russia’s Criminal Code.
Seregin previously worked with multiple regional media outlets. Since 2017, he has been running the Telegram channel “Nothing Will Happen in Mari El,” which has over 860 subscribers and where he covers local issues, including trials, corruption, human rights, and the environment, and posts updates about local residents who have died in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“He is the only journalist in the republic who is active both in the media and in civil society,” a local activist from Mari El had told Idel.Realii, the Tatar-Bashkir service of U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) on condition of anonymity, in a November 2025 interview.
Over recent years, Seregin has repeatedly faced repression for his journalism and civic activities. The Russian Ministry of Justice designated Seregin a “foreign agent” in November 2024. In September 2025, he was fined 30,000 rubles (USD$380) for failing to list his designation.
In addition to Seregin, Russia is currently holding at least 29 journalists in connection with their work.
CPJ called Russia’s Investigative Committee’s branch in Mari El for comment but the call went unanswered.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.