Russian mathematician Semyon Krasotkin charged with treason over $26 in paid Telegram reactions to Ukrainian and opposition channels

Semyon Krasotkin, a 27-year-old mathematician and journalist from Moscow, has been jailed on treason charges, the news outlet Vot Tak reported.Krasotkin was detained at Domodedovo Airport in mid-August 2026 after a trip to Kyrgyzstan, a source told Vot Tak. Border guards searched his phone and found “stars” — paid reactions that serve as Telegram’s virtual currency — that he had left on posts in opposition and Ukrainian Telegram channels.Krasotkin was then kept in custody through a series of back-to-back jail terms for the administrative offense of “petty hooliganism.” Before that, Vot Tak’s sources said, he had been threatened with treason charges, torture, and violence.Krasotkin was due to be released on September 17 but was again kept in custody. He was taken to the Moscow office of the Federal Security Service, Russia’s domestic security agency, where authorities opened a treason investigation into him, sources told Vot Tak. On September 19, a court ordered him held in pretrial detention for two months.One source told Vot Tak that investigators listed “star” reactions worth a total of 2,200 rubles in Krasotkin’s case. Another said Krasotkin had sent “stars” to a Ukrainian Telegram meme channel that was probably raising money for Ukraine’s armed forces.Krasotkin earned a master’s degree from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and worked as a mathematician at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Trapeznikov Institute of Control Sciences. He also joined Russian Wikinews at 16. The project’s website lists him as one of its nine administrators; he has published more than a million news items.Criminal investigations over Telegram “stars” have been reported since early 2026, though the initial investigations involved allegations of financing terrorism. In the summer, the Telegram channel Tyuremny Advokat reported the first treason investigations over Telegram “stars.” In September 2026, human rights advocates asked Telegram founder Pavel Durov to make paid reactions to posts anonymous because Russians were facing criminal prosecution over them.At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at [email protected].To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.