Pavel Syutkin

A Moscow resident, born in 1965. Candidate of Historical Sciences, blogger, historian and writer specialising in the history of Russian cuisine. Married.

Detained in spring 2025 following a denunciation. Charged with spreading 'false information' about the armed forces over a post published on his Telegram channel in spring 2022: 'Kyiv was bombed – Putin's war had direct parallels with Hitler's. Now he has his own Babyn Yar. Bucha – more than 200 civilians, women, elderly people and children, shot dead'. In autumn 2026, sentenced to six years in a penal colony.

2020s

Reading time: 3 minutes

The Final Statement

‘It is precisely behind bars that you can feel most clearly that you are not alone, that a huge number of people share your views.’

The final statement was sent in a letter.

I have now spent ten months in prison as a political prisoner. Apart from certain inconveniences, this status also offers an undeniable advantage in today’s Russia. It is precisely behind bars that you can feel most clearly that you are not alone, that a huge number of people share your views.

Over these months, I have received hundreds of letters from Russia and other countries expressing support and solidarity. Even former classmates from the Institute of International Relations have managed to find me. ‘Back then, in the mid-1980s,’ one of them writes to me, ‘we could never have imagined that the situation in Russia would turn out this way’.

Indeed, we could never have imagined that the word ‘war’ would become forbidden and that people would be sentenced to prison terms for using it. That the struggle for peace would become a criminal offence. That the wonderful concept of ‘patriotism’ would become synonymous with hatred of the entire civilised world. And that thieves and embezzlers of public funds would appoint themselves heirs to the traditions of our grandfathers, who defeated fascism. Even the word ‘fascist’ itself would come to be attached to anyone who opposes our president-for-life.

My case is clearly political in nature. Consequently, in modern Russia, it is an example of a violation of fundamental laws. The actions of the investigators and the FSB violate not only domestic legislation but also Russia’s international obligations.

Even under the current policy of isolation from the rest of the world, our country has not yet withdrawn from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Let me remind you that it affirms everyone’s right to freedom of expression and prohibits discrimination on the grounds of political beliefs.

The charges brought against me also contradict the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which provides for ideological and political pluralism and guarantees the right to hold and disseminate one’s beliefs. In this regard, I would like to emphasise once again that criticising the authorities, their mistakes and their crimes is not a criminal offence. Putin is neither a tsar nor a god. As a public figure, he can be criticised – and it is for this that I am now on trial.

I am glad that I was able to publicly express the opinion of millions of Russians who, even amid the overwhelming tide of cannibalistic propaganda, managed to preserve the conscience and honour of a decent human being. As a historian, I am certain that the past couple of decades will soon be remembered as one of the most shameful periods in our country’s history in many centuries.

As for the sentence I am about to receive, the prosecutor’s sentencing request confirms how effectively I have worked and how useful my speeches and publications have been in reviving Russian civil society. And I am certain that people’s solidarity is far stronger than bars and locks.

9 September 2026.
Source: ‘ZPCh‘.
Read more: ‘Memorial‘.
Photo: Pavel Syutkin’s personal archive.