Moscow’s Golovinsky District Court has sentenced Tikhon Dzyadko, editor-in-chief of the Dozhd (TV Rain) television channel, in absentia to eight years in prison for spreading so-called “fakes” about the Russian army, the outlet *Ostorozhno, Novosti* reports, citing the court’s press service. In addition to the prison term, the court ordered Dzyadko to pay a fine of 250,000 rubles and banned him from managing social media pages for four years. The prosecution had requested the same eight-year sentence in a penal colony but sought a significantly higher fine of 5.9 million rubles. Dozhd employees Dzyadko, Kotrikadze, and Ratnikova have been added to Russia’s list of terrorists and extremists. As a reminder, in October 2025, Tikhon Dzyadko was […]
Moscow’s Golovinsky District Court has sentenced Tikhon Dzyadko, editor-in-chief of the Dozhd (TV Rain) television channel, in absentia to eight years in prison for spreading so-called “fakes” about the Russian army, reports the outlet *Ostorozhno, Novosti*, citing the court’s press service.
In addition to the prison term, the court ordered Dzyadko to pay a fine of 250,000 rubles and banned him from managing social media pages for four years.
The prosecution had requested the same eight-year sentence in a penal colony but sought a significantly higher fine of 5.9 million rubles.
As a reminder, in October 2025, Tikhon Dzyadko was arrested in absentia and added to the registry of terrorists and extremists. The investigation claimed that he published messages on his Telegram channel containing “false information” about the actions of the Russian military in Ukraine, including materials regarding the killing of civilians in Bucha and Irpin and the destruction of Ukrainian cities.
*Mediazona* reported that the case concerned posts containing links to a report from Bucha and a *New York Times* investigation into the deaths of civilians in the Kyiv region.
This is not the first such ruling against Dozhd journalists. In February 2026, Ekaterina Kotrikadze, the head of the channel’s news service, was also sentenced in absentia. The court sentenced her to eight years in prison in a similar case involving “fakes” about the Russian army.
The grounds for her conviction were also her publications in the spring of 2022, which mentioned, among other things, the deaths of civilians in Bucha and the deaths of a child and mother following a strike on Odesa.
Dozhd journalist Ekaterina Kotrikadze sentenced in absentia to 8 years in prison
