Political consultant and elections expert Alexander Kynev has been arrested in Moscow on drug charges, the exiled news outlet Mediazona reported Friday.
Kynev, a former political science professor at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, was charged with “large-scale illegal drug production, sale and trafficking,” his lawyer told Mediazona. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
The circumstances surrounding Kynev’s arrest were not immediately known. Law enforcement officials have not commented on Mediazona’s report.
Russia’s Justice Ministry designated Kynev a “foreign agent” in February. Despite his public criticism of the government over the years, he chose to remain in Moscow amid growing political repression since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Kynev, who wrote regular opinion columns for The Moscow Times before it was designated an “undesirable” organization in 2024, has worked as a political consultant since the 1990s, when he first worked on campaigns for the liberal Yabloko party.
Over the years, he has worked for a number of independent political organizations, including the now-disbanded election observer Golos.
