Press Release, 20.02.2026

Photo: Vladimir Yefimov. Photo: Kamchatka Yabloko

The Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky City Court has denied parole to Yabloko leader in Kamchatka, journalist Vladimir Yefimov, who is serving a sentence in a penal colony. The grounds for refusal were formal violations of the detention regime. First, during a walk Yefimov had removed his jacket, which displayed his full name and prisoner number; second, during an inspection of his cell, convoy officers found a deodorant which is prohibited under colony rules.

The hearing at the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky City Court, where Yefimov’s parole application was considered, took place on 13 February, but details emerged only a week later. It is reported that the application was heard by the same judge who had sentenced Yefimov to penal colony in January 2025, and that the refusal was based on formal grounds, including the two violations of colony rules.

It should be noted that 71-year-old Vladimir Yefimov is one of Kamchatka’s best-known journalists. In 1989 he became one of the founders of TVK, the first non-state independent television company in the USSR, which he led until 2007. He is also a laureate of the highest award of the regional branch of the Russian Union of Journalists — “Journalistic Glory of Kamchatka” — which he received in 2021. That same year, Vladimir Yefimov became head of the Public Expert Council for Civil Society Development in Kamchatka.

In 2022 he was repeatedly subjected to administrative penalties under articles on “discrediting the army” and “displaying extremist symbols” for critical posts about the special military operation in Ukraine on social media. Criminal proceedings were subsequently initiated against him, and he was fined 200,000 roubles. A second criminal case, on “discreditation” (Article 280.3 Part 1 of the Criminal Code), was opened in August 2023, because of a post in which Vladimir Yefimov compared Russia’s military expenditure with spending on education and healthcare.

In January 2025, a court sentenced Yefimov to two years in a penal settlement colony and banned him for four years from publishing content on the Internet and administering websites.

The parole application considered by the court in February 2026 was his first. Yefimov will now be able to submit his next application for early release only in August. Should the court reject it at that point as well, Vladimir Yefimov would remain in the colony until the January holidays of 2027, although, owing to the holiday calendar, he might be released on 30–31 December 2026.