Russia sentences founder of exile news outlet Astra to seven years in absentia. Her lawyers say she was convicted of violating ‘foreign agent’ regulations despite never being designated one.

Ulyanovsk’s Zavolzhsky District Court has sentenced Anastasia Chumakova, Astra’s founder and editor-in-chief, in absentia to seven years in prison.

Chumakova was charged with spreading “fake news” about the Russian army and violating “foreign agent” regulations.

The court also barred her from running websites and other online platforms for four and a half years and fined her 200,000 rubles.

According to Astra, witnesses in the case included neighbors of Chumakova’s relatives who did not know her and had never seen her.

The prosecutor had sought a nine-year prison sentence for Chumakova.

The “fake news” charge concerned both posts on Chumakova’s personal Telegram channel and Astra’s March and April 2022 reports on the killings of civilians in Bucha, in the Kyiv region, during the Russian occupation.

Responding to the allegation of “failure to comply with foreign agent obligations,” Chumakova’s defense told the court that she did not have “foreign agent” status. Astra itself had been designated a “foreign agent,” but Chumakova had been added to a registry of people affiliated with a “foreign agent.”

The defense asked the court to acquit Chumakova and recognize her right to redress for wrongful prosecution.

Russian authorities designated Astra’s Telegram channel a “foreign agent” in 2024. In October 2025, Chumakova was added to the list of “terrorists and extremists.” In November that year, it emerged that she had been placed on a wanted list in connection with the “fake news” case. In January 2026, authorities opened another criminal investigation into her, this time for allegedly failing to comply with “foreign agent” requirements.