Aleksandr Strukov

A photographer who co-operated with Navalny's team in Moscow.
In January 2022, a criminal case was opened against him for public justification of terrorism and incitement of hatred in connection with comments under posts in the Telegram channel of the media outlet Znak.com. Strukov was detained after a search and placed in pretrial detention. It later became known that the case also included a charge of offending the feelings of believers.

Strukov himself told OVD-Info that in the Znak.com chatrooms where he had written his comments there were “Kremlin bots” provoking people into verbal aggression."They wrote anti-Semitic insults, insults against the Ukrainian people, calls for the destruction of the social group "Navalnists", people with liberal views. Simply put, tthe chat was filled with chaos, swearing, and spam. Seeing all the absurdity that surrounds us every day, all the injustice, it was sometimes nice to let off steam in the evening by writing a couple of comments to these provocateurs," the photographer said.

In September 2023, it became known that one of Strukov's cellmates - ex-mercenary of Wagner PMC - offered other detainees a cartoon of cigarettes to beat up the photographer. None of the 18 people in the cell agreed to this, but the fight took place anyway. After that, an officer suggested that Strukov “move to SIZO No. 6 to do repairs there.” This detention center is a women’s facility, but according to lawyers, it also holds transgender people and those prosecuted on charges of sexual abuse of minors.

On 3 November 2023, Strukov was sentenced to eight years in a general regime colony and a fine of 200,000 rubles. On 30 January 2024, the court of appeal reduced the sentence by two months and the fine by 20 thousand roubles. On 1 August 2024, the cassation court further softened the sentence by removing the fine, as the statute of limitations had expired under the article on insulting the feelings of believers.

In May 2025, it became known that a new case of public justification of terrorism had been opened against Strukov. The basis was the words “Death to Putin” spoken during the announcement of the verdict in the first case — the investigators interpreted them as calls to attempt the life of Vladimir Putin. On February 26, 2026, he was sentenced in this case to six years in prison, taking into account the term from the first sentence.

You can read more about politically persecuted people in the Telegram channel OVD-Info LIVE and our database of politically motivated criminal prosecutions.