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Prosecutors seek nearly 2 years in prison for film critic Anton Dolin over ‘foreign agent’ violations

Source: Mediazona

Prosecutors have asked a Moscow court to sentence film critic and journalist Anton Dolin in absentia to one year and 10 months in prison on charges of failing to fulfill his obligations as a foreign agent, a correspondent for Mediazona, an independent Russian news outlet, reports from a Moscow magistrate court.

Dolin is charged with five posts he published without the required foreign agent disclaimer on his Telegram channel in 2024 and 2025. On November 22, 2024, he wrote that his book Plokhiye russkiye “Bad Russians” had received the Prosvetitel prize. On December 10, 2024, he announced plans to travel to Israel to present the book. On February 11, 2025, he published a post linking to his digest on Russian cinema on YouTube. On February 24, 2025, he wrote about the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine and discussed his recent publications. On March 1, 2025, he published a post reflecting on the meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump.

The case against Dolin became public in September 2025. In November, a court ordered his arrest in absentia.

Russia’s Justice Ministry designated Anton Dolin a foreign agent in October 2022. Dolin does not consider himself a foreign agent and challenged the designation in court, his lawyer Eva Korneichik told the court during the hearing on the foreign agent obligations case.

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