Russia’s justice system
Kremlin critic Udaltsov sentenced to prison
Updated 12/25/2025 – 8:55 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Criticism of Kremlin chief Putin is punished harshly by the judiciary in Russia. Whether Sergei Udaltsov will survive six years in a penal colony remains questionable, especially since he has announced a hunger strike until death.
Left-wing Russian Kremlin critic Sergei Udaltsov has been sentenced to six years in a penal colony by a court in Moscow for allegedly justifying terrorism. The court was one year short of the seven years demanded by the public prosecutor’s office for Udaltsov. He had recently declared that if he were convicted, he would begin “an indefinite hunger strike until death.”
“A shameful decision. Everyone who made it will be held responsible, I hope. Be damned, you dogs. I wish that for you with all my heart,” he was quoted as saying by the opposition website Meduza after the verdict was announced.
Udaltsov is a supporter of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. However, he is considered a critic of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.
According to Meduza, the reason for Udaltsov’s persecution was his article “How Marxists were turned into terrorists.” Udaltsov’s publications were devoted to the case of a “terrorist organization” which, according to the domestic intelligence service FSB, included members of a Marxist circle in Ufa. In mid-December, they were sentenced by the Central Military Court to prison terms of between 16 and 22 years in a penal colony.
Along with the liberal politician Alexei Navalny, who died in a penal colony under unclear circumstances in February of the previous year, Udaltsov was a leader of the protest movement from 2011 to 2013 that was directed against Putin’s return to the Kremlin as president. Udaltsov was sentenced to four and a half years in prison in 2014 for allegedly organizing and planning mass unrest.
