The Cheryomushkinsky District Court in Moscow on October 1 sentenced writer Dmitry Bykov to seven years in a general-regime penal colony, TASS reported. The court fully upheld the prosecutor’s request for that sentence.
Bykov was found guilty under Paragraph “d” of Part 2, Article 207.3 of the Russian Criminal Code (“public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Russian Armed Forces”) and Part 2, Article 330.1 (“failure to fulfill obligations stipulated by Russia’s foreign agents legislation”). He has been placed on an international wanted list.
According to the press service of the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office, a video appeared online in 2023 in which Bykov gave an interview containing “false” information about the actions of Russian servicemen against Ukrainian civilians. In addition, in the winter of 2025, Bykov published two materials without the required “foreign agent” label. He had previously been fined twice in one year for violating regulations governing the activities of foreign agents.
A criminal case against Bykov for “spreading fakes” was opened in April 2025. In August, he was arrested in absentia and placed on the international wanted list.
Later that month, the Investigative Committee announced the completion of the investigation and transferred the case to court. On September 11, Bykov was added to Russia’s registry of terrorists and extremists.
Dmitry Bykov is a poet and publicist, literary critic, radio and TV host, journalist, literature lecturer, and film critic. He is also a political thinker and activist known for his opposition to the current Russian leadership, particularly Vladimir Putin. Bykov is the author of biographies of Boris Pasternak, Bulat Okudzhava, Maxim Gorky, and Vladimir Mayakovsky. Together with actor Mikhail Yefremov, he regularly produced literary video projects such as Citizen Poet and Mr. Good.
After Russia launched its war against Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Bykov left the country. He is currently teaching at Cornell University in the United States.
