Russian scientist convicted of treason refuses food and water over alleged abuse in detention

Valery Kachin, a geodesist from Birobidzhan who was sentenced in January 2025 to 14 years in a penal colony for treason, has begun a dry hunger strike at Pretrial Detention Center No. 1 in Izhevsk, the human rights group Department One (Pervy Otdel) reported.

In a letter from the detention center, Kachin, 39, said he had stopped eating and drinking after staff tormented and physically assaulted him. He said he has been held continuously in a punishment cell: After an initial seven days, he was given another 10 days, followed by two consecutive 15-day terms. He said staff force him to raise and lower a heavy bed by himself, even though he is not required to do so. He said staff also conduct nighttime inspections and confiscate personal belongings from his cell.

“This morning, after we traded insults, they forced me to the floor. I bruised my face on the floor, and my elbows and knees are scraped. I started a hunger strike this morning — no water or food. Tell everyone,” he wrote, according to Pervy Otdel.

Kachin is 182 centimeters (about 6 feet) tall and weighs just 60 kilograms (132 pounds), the group said.

Kachin previously began a dry hunger strike in September 2025 at Penal Colony No. 8, known as Khokhryaki, in Udmurtia. He went on that strike after spending 60 days in a punishment cell. He said that while there, he was unable to keep to the vegan diet he has followed for 14 years. He had received food assistance from Vegan Peredachki (Vegan Care Packages), an initiative whose volunteers arrange vegan meals for political prisoners, but prisoners in punishment cells cannot receive care packages.

Kachin’s case became public in December 2022. On January 27, 2025, the Birobidzhan City Court sentenced him to 14 years in a high-security prison. He was then transferred to a penal colony in Udmurtia.

Kachin last worked as a junior researcher at the Bastak Nature Reserve in Birobidzhan. The news outlet Ostorozhno, Novosti reported that he had used social media to voice support for Alexei Navalny and the protests in Belarus and to speak out against the war in Ukraine.