Exiled Academic Dmitry Zayakin Sentenced to Five Years for Supporting Navalnys Anti-Corruption Campaign

A Moscow court sentenced exiled Russian academic and anti-plagiarism advocate Dmitry Zayakin to five years in prison in absentia on charges of extremism on Wednesday.

Zayakin was detained in August 2022 for allegedly «financing extremist activities» after donating 1,000 rubles ($13) to the Anti-Corruption Foundation of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

He reportedly left Russia in October 2022, coinciding with the Interior Ministry’s decision to place him on its wanted list. On October 29 of that year, Navalny associate Georgy Alburov shared a photo showing Zayakin arriving in Vilnius, Lithuania.

In 2021, Russian authorities classified the Anti-Corruption Foundation and Navalny’s broader political network as «extremist.»

On Wednesday, the Zamoskvoretsky District Court in Moscow found Zayakin guilty of financing extremism and delivered the verdict in his absence, as reported by the independent media organization Mediazona.

Zayakin’s lawyer previously stated that he denied the allegations last month.

He is also a journalist and co-founder of Dissernet, an online platform dedicated to investigating plagiarism in Russian universities and academic journals. Volunteers from Dissernet have identified instances of plagiarism in the doctoral theses of several high-ranking officials in the Russian government.

Furthermore, authorities have branded Zayakin a «foreign agent» and have included him on the list of «terrorists and extremists» in the country.