More than 4,000 political prisoners are held in Russian prisons, and transnational repression also threatens European citizens.
62% confidence
Foreign AffairsRussia
Omissions
The '4,000+' figure reflects the broader count of people facing politically motivated criminal cases (Memorial's 2025 report: 4,843 people subject to criminal prosecution; The Insider: at least 4,029 persecuted in politically motivated cases), not the number of documented political prisoners.
Memorial's authoritative list of recognised political prisoners stood at about 1,268 at the end of 2025 — roughly a third of the figure cited.
No single source defines 'political prisoners' consistently: EU political communications use the higher figure, whereas human-rights documentation bodies use the lower list-based count.
Several sources found were published in 2026, after they were generated from data whose reference period (2025) precedes the session date; they were usable because the underlying data covers a period on or before 2026-10-08.
SecondaryHuman Rights WatchAs of August 2025, Memorial's political prisoners project recorded 1,024 political prisoners in Russia, up from 776 a year ago.
SecondaryBBC NewsTheir list of political prisoners grew from 803 to 1,265 during 2025, a record increase.
SecondaryEU News (eunews.it)There are over 4,000 political prisoners and around 5,000 politically motivated criminal cases.
SecondaryThe InsiderAt least 4,029 people living in Russia and Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine have been persecuted in politically motivated criminal cases.