Denied asylum in the U.S., imprisoned in Russia. Activist Leonid Melekhin gets 6 years for ‘justifying terrorism.’

According to the source, a court sentenced Leonid Melekhin, a businessman and activist from Perm, to six years in prison for justifying terrorism. The charges were based on a Telegram post and an online comment, although the content of those posts is not specified. The post contained a photograph of a sign that read, "Putin V.V. is a murderer, a fascist, a usurper. All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing/hang the fascist."

In 2024, Melekhin fled to the United States, where he applied for political asylum. However, he was denied asylum in the summer of 2025 and was sent to an immigration detention facility. The outlet Properm reported that Melekhin was subsequently deported from the U.S. His lawyer stated that Melekhin had returned to Russia through what he called "self-deportation," despite being aware of the potential for criminal prosecution.

The story was written by a journalist at Meduza, an independent news organization committed to transparency in its use of artificial intelligence. The article was translated from Russian using an AI model, which was carefully configured to adhere to Meduza's editorial standards. Each draft undergoes a review by a Meduza editor before publication.

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