Nika Novak
Nika Novak is a journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)’s Russian Service, known as Radio Svoboda, who has been unjustly detained in Russia since December 25, 2023.
Nika was asleep in the apartment where she lives with her mother in the Siberian city of Chita, when agents of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) raided their home and took her away. She was charged with “collaboration with a foreign organization on a confidential basis,” under Article 275.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and flown to Moscow where she was placed in pre-trial detention.
In the fall of 2024, Nika was transferred back to Chita and tried behind closed doors. On November 26, 2024, a Chita court convicted Nika and sentenced her to four years in prison. She is the first journalist to be sentenced under Article 275.1. Human rights experts say the article is written so broadly that it could be used to prosecute anyone who communicates with individuals outside of Russia.
RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus condemned Nika’s conviction and said, “These politically motivated charges are intended to silence individual reporters and cause a chilling effect. We call for Nika’s immediate release to her family.”
On July 22, 2024, leading Russian human rights group Memorial recognized Nika as a political prisoner. Nika’s detention has also been condemned by the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Coalition for Women in Journalism, and the International Press Institute, which said Nika’s sentencing was “made possible by Russia’s continued instrumentalization of its own legislation with the aim of repressing independent journalists and other critical voices.”
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