Political prisoner Vladimir Yarotsky was found dead overnight in IK-9 in Khadyzhensk, Krasnodar region. According to the official version, he died by suicide. The project Politzek-Info reported this.
What is known
The project SOTAvision said the information about Yarotsky’s death was confirmed by another political prisoner, Aleksandr Nozdrinov, who is also serving his sentence in IK-9. According to him, Yarotsky had complained about pressure from the prison administration. He was allegedly forced to work night shifts despite medical contraindications, and the pressure increased after he asked for his working conditions to be changed.
Why he was imprisoned
In December 2023, Yarotsky was sentenced to one and a half years in a penal colony on charges of desecrating a symbol of military glory. The case was based on an image posted on VK showing Vladimir Putin with a St. George ribbon around his neck being drawn by a street artist; on the paper, the drawing turns out to be a penis.
The sentence was later overturned and the case was sent back for a new hearing. In the meantime, security officials brought a new charge against Yarotsky, accusing him of spreading military “fakes.” Investigators said he had posted on social media “unsubstantiated information” about Russian soldiers being killed and going missing in Ukraine.
In May 2025, Yarotsky was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison on the two charges. In addition, in August 2024 he was fined 350,000 rubles in a case over calls for terrorism because of a post saying that Putin’s killing would lead to the end of the war in Ukraine.
The Memorial Human Rights Center recognized the Krasnodar resident as a political prisoner.
Deaths in custody
Yarotsky became at least the seventh political prisoner to die in custody since the beginning of the year. Earlier, Roman Sidorkin, Oleg Tyryshkin, Aleksandr Dotsenko, Vladimir Osipov, Andrei Akuzin, and Vegan Khristolyub Bozhy were found dead in penal colonies and pretrial detention centers.
Human rights defenders note that the real number of such deaths may be higher, because information about the deaths of people held captive, including Ukrainians, often emerges only many months or even years later.