Nika Novak, a journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)’s Russian Service, known as Radio Svoboda, has been unjustly detained in Russia since December 25, 2023.
Novak was asleep in the apartment where she lives with her mother in the Siberian city of Chita, when agents of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) raided their home and took her away. She was charged with “collaboration with a foreign organization on a confidential basis” under Article 275.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and flown to Moscow where she was placed in pretrial detention.
In the fall of 2024, Novak was transferred back to Chita and tried behind closed doors. On November 26, 2024, a Chita court convicted and sentenced her to four years in prison. She is the first journalist to be sentenced under Article 275.1. Human rights experts say the article is written so broadly that it could be used to prosecute anyone who communicates with individuals outside of Russia.
In March 2025, Novak was placed in a solitary cell on “special watch,” a regime that subjects detainees to stricter control and surveillance. On March 31, 2025, a Russian court denied her appeal and ordered the confiscation of 500,000 rubles, approximately $6,000, allegedly earned “criminally” from her work with RFE/RL.
On May 25, 2025, Russian authorities transferred Novak to a penal colony in Irkutsk, Siberia. The facility is one of the harshest in the region. Former inmates held there have described regular beatings, psychological pressure, blackmail, and prolonged detention in punishment cells. In August 2025, Novak was placed in solitary confinement for five days for refusing to deny reports about her poor detention conditions. In November 2025, she was held incommunicado for nine days.
Novak’s detention has been widely condemned by press freedom and human rights organizations. RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus condemned her conviction and said, “These politically motivated charges are intended to silence individual reporters and cause a chilling effect. We call for Nika’s immediate release to her family.”
The leading Russian human rights group Memorial has recognized Novak as a political prisoner. Her detention has also been condemned by the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Coalition for Women in Journalism, and the International Press Institute, which said her sentencing was “made possible by Russia’s continued instrumentalization of its own legislation with the aim of repressing independent journalists and other critical voices.”
In May 2026, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention announced its opinion finding Novak’s detention to be arbitrary and calling for her release.
Novak is one of three RFE/RL journalists unfairly imprisoned for their work, along with Farid Mehralizada in Azerbaijan and Reza Valizadeh in Iran.