Zhuravel's mother denies receiving information about his whereabouts from the Federal Penitentiary Service.
The Federal Penitentiary Service reported that Nikita Zhuravel's mother had been sent information about his whereabouts. A human rights activist countered that the mother had not received such information, calling on the agency to contact Zhuravel's family.
As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," the family of former Volgograd student Nikita Zhuravel has not received any letters from him for three months, leading them to worry about his health and life. In April 2025, the Third Appellate Court upheld Nikita Zhuravel's treason conviction at an off-site hearing in the Volgograd Regional Court. On December 3, it was reported that Zhuravel was transferred to Moscow's Matrosskaya Tishina pretrial detention center pending a cassation hearing in the treason case in the Supreme Court of Russia. On December 4, the Russian Supreme Court refused to change Zhuravel's sentence.
On February 27, 2024, a court in Grozny sentenced Nikita Zhuravel to 3.5 years in prison, finding him guilty of violating the right to religion and hooliganism for burning a Koran. In October 2024, the Prosecutor General's Office announced a new case against Zhuravel, alleging treason. Several weeks later, the convicted man was transferred from Chechnya to Volgograd, where the case was subsequently heard. The voluntariness of Zhuravel's testimony regarding treason remains in question, but the closed nature of the trial prevents his statements from being heard, human rights activists noted. On November 25, 2024, a court in Volgograd sentenced Zhuravel to 13.5 years in prison on charges of treason (Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code). Taking into account the remaining sentence in the Koran-burning case, the court sentenced him to 14 years in prison.
The information circulated in the media and on the internet that the convicted Nikita Zhuravel "disappeared without a trace" is untrue, the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) stated today.
"Convict Zhuravel N., in accordance with the law, continues to serve his sentence in one of the institutions of the penal system of the Russian Federation. Information about the place of serving the sentence was sent to the convicted person's mother in the prescribed manner within four days of his arrival at the institution. On January 21, 2026, the convicted person already received a letter from his mother," the statement on the agency's Telegram channel reads.
Human rights activist Eva Merkacheva called the FSIN's response "very strange." "I just spoke with his mother. She doesn't know where her son is. No one knows. She didn't receive any notification. She received a letter from him in January, which was sent back in December. She didn't write a letter to him in the colony because (I repeat) she doesn't know where he is," she wrote on her Telegram channel.
In another message, she addressed the agency. "Instead of writing refutations, simply contact the mother of the convicted Zhuravel and tell her where he is. I am ready to give her the unfortunate mother's phone number. She is still waiting for news," the Federal Penitentiary Service urged Merkacheva.
As a reminder, on September 25, 2023, Ramzan Kadyrov published a video of his son Adam beating Zhuravel in a pretrial detention center. The head of Chechnya praised his son for this act, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "Beating of Nikita Zhuravel: Why Kadyrov's Men Needed to Publish the Video." After Zhuravel's beating, Adam Kadyrov began receiving numerous awards and titles—among the first were the title of Hero of Chechnya and the highest state awards of Karachay-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria. On December 30, 2025, he received from his father the Akhmat Kadyrov Memorial Medal "For Contribution to Ensuring the Security, Stability, and Prosperity of the Motherland." Commenting on his son's awards, Kadyrov Sr. stated that all of them were received for specific achievements.