21:45, 9 March 2026

Relatives reported pressure on Alexander Somryakov in the Kuban penal colony.

Krasnodar resident Alexander Somryakov, sentenced to six years for spreading "fakes" about the Russian army, is being beaten and threatened in prison, his family reported.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," a Krasnodar court in 2023 sentenced Alexander Somryakov to six years in prison, finding him guilty under Article 207.3 of the Russian Criminal Code for disseminating false information about the armed forces. The appellate court upheld the sentence, and in September of that year he was transferred to a penal colony in Kuban. In March 2024, police sent Somryakov a notice terminating his Russian citizenship, rendering him stateless.

In the spring of 2022, Alexander Somryakov, a 36-year-old electrician from Krasnodar, wrote on his social media page about the actions of Russian troops in Ukraine, expressing his opinion. Article 207.3 of the Russian Criminal Code, under which he was convicted, "contradicts the Russian Constitution, its international obligations, and fundamental principles of law," human rights activists stated. In August 2023, the human rights project "Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial"* recognized Alexander Somryakov as a political prisoner and demanded his release.

Alexander Somryakov, who is regularly placed in solitary confinement for minor offenses in Penal Colony No. 9 in Khadyzhensk, indicated in a conversation with his family that he was in danger. According to the political prisoner's wife and mother, Somryakov was "saying goodbye" to them in today's conversation.

"Someone is threatening him there because he said he'd been locked up in solitary confinement several times, then beaten," the Politzek-Info project quotes Somryakov's relatives as saying.

According to his wife, Alexander couldn't provide details of the threats. "I asked him, 'Are you being threatened?' He immediately fell silent. Someone must have been standing nearby, I understand. He couldn't speak. And even with sadness, almost in tears, he told me to bring my child for the last time (...) He called in the morning and said goodbye. Then he called again and said bluntly, 'Come with your daughter, this is the last time I'll see you,'" the relatives said.

Relatives note that today Alexander Somryakov was sent back to solitary confinement on a trumped-up charge - he was found to have broken headphones, which the prison staff themselves had given him.

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Translated automatically via Google translate from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/421465