A Russian journalist has been convicted for reporting on the results of the Five-Day War.

Moscow's Tagansky Court sentenced journalist Valeria Kichigina in absentia to 10 years in prison on charges of "military fakes" for publishing information about Russian military actions against Georgia during the 2008 Five-Day War.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," Dozhd* journalist Valeria Kichigina was accused of spreading fake news about the army. One of the publications charged against her concerns the presence of Russian troops in South Ossetia after the 2008 Five-Day War. This is the first time the "fake news" statute has been used for statements unrelated to the SVO. Expanding the article's scope to other conflicts involving Russian military increases the risks of its arbitrary interpretation, human rights activists noted.

The debate and verdict in the case of Valeria Kichigina in Moscow's Tagansky Court were held on the same day, the journalist noted. Kichigina was represented in court by a lawyer. According to the journalist, the “main part of the accusation” is based on the assessment of her social media post about the 2008 Russian-Georgian war.

"The case was primarily opened for my story (meaning Instagram stories*** - note from "Caucasian Knot") about the Russian-Georgian war, which I wrote on the 15th anniversary. I posted a collage and wrote that 20% of Georgia is occupied by Russia. This collage was in my highlights, that is, in those stories that don't disappear, but remain in my profile. The second charge was a repost of Dmitry Kolezev's article, which analyzed the events in Bucha and why it couldn't be fake. But the case itself was opened specifically for Georgia; Bucha appeared there retroactively some time later – about a year later, when they decided that Georgia alone wasn't enough and they needed to find something else," Valeria Kichigina told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Meanwhile, she connects the criminal prosecution to her other publications. "It's generally related to my journalistic work, because in 2024, I published my report on the 'Baimak case' (the persecution of protesters in Bashkortostan - Caucasian Knot note). This case was initially opened in Ufa, but I haven't lived in Ufa since 2015. It's unclear why it could have been opened there; practically all the dates in the case file are backdated," Kichigina said.

According to her, the criminal case was bounced back and forth between Ufa and Moscow for a long time. "This case dragged on in court for a year and a half. Ufa and Moscow were constantly exchanging information, but no one wanted to take it. When the investigation supposedly began, I was in Russia, but no one questioned me or looked for me. For some reason, the case was only opened a year and a half after its publication," Kichigina noted.

She added that she was "shocked by the sentence" and plans to appeal the verdict. "This is the first time something like this has happened for a publication about the war in Georgia. It's a complete shock, because my publication literally contains facts lifted from Wikipedia. Naturally, I took the verdict negatively. We will appeal it; we're already filing it with a lawyer," said Kichigina.

Svetlana Gannushkina, Chair of the Civic Assistance Committee**, believes that prosecution for this kind of publication about historical events is absurd.

"I think there should be a statute of limitations for historical events. Let's re-evaluate the Battle of Kulikovo Field now? There are genuinely different opinions about who won. Overall, it's a rather harsh sentence, 10 years, and it could be used as a precedent. It feels like we're living in some kind of theater of the absurd, nonsense, and a complete loss of logic," said Gannushkina. "Caucasian Knot"

Lawyer Vadim Kudryavtsev, who is not connected to the Kichigina case but has defended those accused of fabricating information about the army, believes that the expert examination's findings play a key role in the prosecution's case. At the same time, he doesn't rule out that the event the journalist wrote about could have been subject to the statute of limitations.

"If she took the facts about the Russian-Georgian war specifically from Wikipedia, it would be worthwhile to conduct a proper expert analysis and confirm that this isn't fake news, but publicly available information. A lot depends on the expert in such cases. You need to ask the expert the right questions right away, but the judge may or may not accept an independent expert analysis," the lawyer told the "Caucasian Knot."

* The Dozhd TV channel has been designated an undesirable organization and added to the register of foreign agents.** has been added to the register of foreign agents.

*** Meta (which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) is banned in Russia.