A judge in Moscow on Tuesday sentenced exiled television journalist Tikhon Dzyadko to eight years in prison in absentia after finding him guilty of spreading “fakes” about Russia’s armed forces and violating the country’s law on “foreign agents.”
Dzyadko, who serves as editor-in-chief at TV Rain, was accused of spreading false information by writing on social media that Russian soldiers shot and killed civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha in the early days of the full-scale invasion.
A warrant for his arrest was issued in April 2025.
State prosecutors also accused Dzyadko of failing to comply with Russia’s law on “foreign agents,” which requires those hit with the designation to submit rigorous financial reports to the government and display a “foreign agent” disclaimer in all of their publications, including social media posts.
Russia’s Justice Ministry labeled Dzyadko a “foreign agent” in October 2022. A Moscow court had previously fined him in July 2023 for non-compliance with “foreign agent” requirements.
A judge at Moscow’s Golovinsky District Court found Dzyadko guilty on both counts and sentenced him to eight years in prison in absentia, TV Rain reported on Tuesday. He was also banned from managing websites for four years and fined 250,000 rubles ($3,400).
Dzyadko’s wife, the Russian-Georgian journalist Yekaterina Kotrikadze, was also sentenced to eight years in prison in absentia over “war fakes” in February.
In October, Russia’s financial monitoring agency Rosfinmonitoring placed both Dzyadko and Kotrikadze on its list of “terrorists and extremists.”
