A Moscow court has sentenced TV Rain editor-in-chief Tikhon Dzyadko in absentia to eight years in prison on charges of spreading “false information” about the Russian military, the Russian Telegram news channel Ostorozhno Novosti reported, citing the court’s press service.

Dzyadko was also fined 250,000 rubles and banned from running social media accounts for four years. Prosecutors had sought eight years and a fine of 5.9 million rubles.

In October 2025, a court ordered Dzyadko’s arrest in absentia, and he was added to Russia’s list of terrorists and extremists. Prosecutors alleged that the TV Rain editor-in-chief had published two posts in his Telegram channel containing “false information about violent actions by Russian military personnel” in Ukraine, including claims about the killing of civilians in Bucha and Irpin “by shooting” and the destruction of Ukrainian cities.

The independent Russian news outlet Mediazona clarified that the posts in question contained links to a report from Bucha and a New York Times investigation into the killing of civilians in the Kyiv region.

In February 2026, a Moscow court sentenced Yekaterina Kotrikadze, head of the independent Russian broadcaster TV Rain’s news division, in absentia to eight years in prison on charges of spreading “false information” about the military. The criminal case stemmed from posts she wrote in her Telegram channel in the spring of 2022, including accounts of the killing of civilians in Bucha and the deaths of a three-month-old girl and her mother in a missile strike on Odesa.