The human rights initiative Gulagu.net, which assisted prisoners in Russian penal colonies and prisons, has announced that it is ending its work. The statement was published on the project’s Telegram channel.
The authors said the decision was driven by pressure, threats, and internal difficulties. They cited risks tied to human rights work, organizational problems, discrimination, and an atmosphere of harassment and conflict.
The project said its members were being “pressed from all sides,” had their accounts blocked, and faced open persecution, while the most visible opponents of the Kremlin, according to the statement, could become targets of killings.
Gulagu.net added that it did not want to create additional risks either for people still inside Russia or for those who had left the country and continued public work abroad. According to the authors, the project had done everything it could and considered this stage complete.
Gulagu.net was founded by former businessman Vladimir Osechkin, who left Russia in 2015. The project focused on helping prisoners and combating torture and corruption within the FSIN, Russia’s prison service. In February 2025, Osechkin was sentenced in absentia in Russia to eight years in prison in a case over alleged “fake news” about the army. He has also faced a fraud case in Russia. He now lives in France.
Osechkin said that in September 2022 an assassination attempt was made against him in Biarritz while he was at home with his family. French law enforcement later said they had no objective evidence confirming such an attempt. However, in October 2025, Le Parisien reported that four suspects had been detained in France over preparations for an attack on him.
Cooperation with Gulagu.net has led to criminal prosecution in Russia. In February 2025, a court in Minusinsk sentenced two former Wagner fighters recruited from prison to 5.5 years in a penal colony in a case over alleged “fake news” about the army after they gave interviews to the project. In March 2026, a court in Yekaterinburg began hearing the case against war participant Igor Roshchin, who is accused under the same article because of an interview with Gulagu.net.