Russian political prisoner Alexey Gorinov says he may have been poisoned as Moscow City Court rejects his lawyer’s bid to reopen his case
Former Moscow municipal deputy Alexey Gorinov said at a Moscow City Court hearing that he may have been poisoned, according to the Telegram news channel SotaVision. He took part in the hearing by video link from a penal colony in Altai Krai. The court considered an appeal against prosecutors’ refusal to reopen the criminal case against Gorinov and ultimately upheld that refusal.
The political prisoner told the court that prison officials were not registering his requests for medical care. He asked the court to help him obtain treatment, but the court refused.
Gorinov was among the first Russians convicted under the law criminalizing “false information” about the military. In 2022, he was sentenced to seven years in a penal colony after proposing a moment of silence at a municipal council meeting “for the victims of the ongoing military aggression in Ukraine.” He later received an additional prison term in a separate “justifying terrorism” case based on conversations with fellow inmates.
Gorinov’s defense attorney, Yekaterina Tertukhina, sought to have the case reopened, citing a decision by the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. The panel identified 11 violations in his case and found his imprisonment arbitrary on three grounds. Tertukhina said prosecutors had effectively failed to consider the defense’s arguments and that Russian courts had never addressed the U.N. panel’s findings. She said the violations provided sufficient grounds to reopen the proceedings.
Gorinov, 65, has repeatedly suffered serious health problems in prison. In 2016, before his imprisonment, Gorinov was diagnosed with tuberculosis and had part of a lung removed because of the disease. During his incarceration, he suffered bouts of pneumonia and bronchitis, and in 2025 his lawyer said doctors had found new tuberculosis lesions. In February 2026, Gorinov spent a month and a half in an unheated cell and again developed bronchitis.
Prison officials have also repeatedly placed Gorinov on preventive watchlists, classifying him as an escape risk and as prone to arson, suicide, and extremism and terrorism. Prisoners on these watchlists are subject to constant checks, including at night. The checks have deprived Gorinov of normal sleep.
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