Justice of the peace for Moscow court district No. 377, Albina Veryasova, fined journalist Ruslan Gorevoy 60,000 rubles under Part 9 of Article 13.15 of the Russian administrative code on abuse of media freedom. Mediazona reported this after finding the information on the Moscow courts website.
Gorevoy is the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Nasha Versiya. The court ruling identifies his position, although the name of the publication itself was removed from the document.
The case was based on an article titled “Officials Will Be Taught to Read Russians’ Minds”, published in Nasha Versiya in February 2025. The text is no longer publicly available. According to Roskomnadzor, the article contained knowingly false socially significant information presented as reliable reporting.
The article said the agency planned to purchase special training programs for staff so they could develop cyberintelligence skills and identify users of social networks and messaging services. The authors cited data from the state procurement portal.
Roskomnadzor argued that the journalists had distorted the meaning of the tenders’ technical specifications. According to the agency, the courses were intended to improve employees’ OSINT skills. Officials objected in particular to wording about collecting and analyzing information on users, cyberintelligence methods, gathering information about people, compiling behavioral profiles, assessing Russians’ reliability, and wielding unlimited power over citizens’ confidential information.
Roskomnadzor also called false the article’s claim that various advanced training courses for officials are often conducted merely to spend budget funds.
Gorevoy did not attend the hearing and did not admit guilt. His defense lawyer argued that the article posed no threat, but Judge Albina Veryasova rejected those arguments.