On February 25, 2026, journalist Anna Yarovaya, who has lived in Finland since 2018, traveled to Petrozavodsk to visit relatives. Earlier trips had passed without major problems, but this time, as she told Novaya Gazeta Europe, FSB officers detained her near her parents’ home, seized her devices, and took her away for hours of questioning.
Yarovaya moved to Finland with her husband, Gleb Yarovoy, after he, a political scientist at Petrozavodsk University, was dismissed in 2017 following an FSB request linked to his articles for 7x7 about human rights violations in Karelia. Yarovaya herself worked for 7x7 and Sever.Realii, later switching to freelance work. At the end of 2024, she received a grant from the Kone Foundation for a book about people who remained in Russia after the start of the war.
According to Yarovaya, crossing the border became more difficult after the war began. In 2024, her passport was taken for the first time and she was invited for a “conversation,” where she was asked about her work, life in Finland, and relatives in Ukraine. In 2025, when she traveled to Russia to gather material for her book, there were no extra questions. In February 2026, while returning from the Barents Spektakel festival in Kirkenes, she decided to combine the trip with a visit to her family.
A day after arriving, as Yarovaya was leaving the building with her father, masked men carrying weapons approached her. She said they identified themselves as FSB officers and claimed to have information suggesting she might be cooperating with Finland’s security police, Supo. The officers then went up to her parents’ apartment, conducted a search, and said her devices would be confiscated as part of an inquiry into suspected treason.
“We have information that you may be cooperating with the Finnish security police,” Yarovaya recalled the officers as saying.
She was then taken to the FSB headquarters on Andropova Street. There, she said, officers questioned her about her attitude toward the war, her contacts with journalists, and her media work, including articles for the Finnish newspaper Karjalainen, and also tried to establish when she had allegedly been “recruited by Finnish intelligence.” She denied having any ties to the security services. At the end of the questioning, an FSB officer read aloud the Russian Criminal Code article on treason. When her lawyer arrived, he reviewed the record and advised her not to delay leaving the country.
Yarovaya was released, but all of her equipment remained with the security service. She said her accounts were remotely blocked during the questioning with the help of human rights defenders. As advice to those still planning to travel to Russia, the journalist said that anyone facing even minimal risk should avoid carrying devices and should take into account the practice of detentions after entry rather than at the border.