Journalist sentenced to 4 years for working with Radio Liberty has disappeared from a Russian prison

Journalist Nika Novak, sentenced to four years in prison for cooperating with Radio Liberty by a Russian court, has disappeared from Penal Colony No.11 in Russia's Irkutsk Oblast.

Source: BBC News Russian, citing Novak's lawyer Yuliya Kuznetsova

Details: Kuznetsova reported she was not allowed to visit her client at Colony IK-11 last week. Meanwhile, letters from Novak began to be returned to senders marked as "the recipient had left the facility". The prison administration has not disclosed where exactly Novak could have been transferred to.

"It's unclear what happened to Nika," Kuznetsova said.

According to Kuznetsova, Novak had faced mounting pressure in the colony over the past months. Since August, she reported threats and systematic harassment, repeatedly going on hunger strikes to protest detention conditions. The journalist also reported provocations from a cellmate.

Novak is the first Russian journalist to be convicted under the law targeting "confidential cooperation" with a foreign entity.

Novak was sentenced to four years in prison for her work with the Radio Liberty project – Siberia.Realii. Both media outlets have been labelled as "foreign agents" by Russian authorities.

Russia is the second country in the world with the most journalists imprisoned. According to the latest report from the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 28 journalists were being held in Russian prisons as of 2025.

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