Political prisoner and amateur radio enthusiast Vladimir Rumyantsev is free. He served 2.5 years for spreading “fake news” about the Russian army on his pirate radio

Vladimir Rumyantsev, a stoker from the Northern Russian city of Vologda, had a passion for radio. With a transmitter he ordered from AliExpress, he started a pirate broadcast. Even before the invasion of Ukraine, he actively spoke out against the authorities, participating in rallies, including those in support of Alexei Navalny.

When Russia’s full-scale invasion in Ukraine started, Rumyantsev took part in anti-war rallies in Vologda and was fined twice for “discrediting” the military. While previously broadcasting music, he switched to airing anti-war political programs and podcasts from independent media outlets.

In April 2022, FSB officers detected his radio signal, conducted a search at the elderly man’s apartment, seized all transmitters, interrogated him, and demanded that he cease his activities. Rumyantsev did not. After the interrogation, he posted a message on VKontakte imitating a “foreign agent” disclaimer, denouncing the invasion in Ukraine as a war crime and genocide.

In July 2022, Rumyantsev was detained again and charged with disseminating “fake news” about the military. He was sent to pre-trial detention. During the investigation and trial, he steadfastly refused to renounce his views and stated that he did not consider his actions to be a crime. “I believe that there is a real war in Ukraine. Prior to the Russian invasion, nobody was killing anyone there; everything was calm,” the radio enthusiast said during questioning.

He was charged with posting six video clips “with deliberately false information about representatives of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine looting, killing, and raping civilians, and destroying hospitals, maternity hospitals, schools, and kindergartens.” In addition, during a week in April 2022, he “broadcast on a certain radio frequency” similar “known false information.”

But Rumyantsev claimed he created his own radio station for himself, so that he could listen to broadcasts while taking walks near his home. It’s unclear if anyone else ever tuned in to his frequency: at least, the investigation couldn’t provide a single other listener in court.

In December 2022, Rumyantev, then 62, was sentenced to three years in a penal colony. “I don’t see myself as a hero. It’s just that between the two paths to continue on, ‘disgusting’ and ‘frightening,’ I chose the latter,” he wrote in a letter to OVD-Info, a media outlet and human rights group. “Sooner or later, this will come to an end. It’s disheartening to witness the country squandering its time in vain.” In 2023, he received the Boris Nemtsov Award—as one of the five Russian political prisoners who have spoken out against war.

Today, Vladimir Rumyantsev walked a free man. Mediazona’s correspondent met him at the gates of the Penal Colony No. 20 in Ustyuzhna, Vologda region.

“I was less worried when I was arrested than I am now. I felt like a soldier getting up from the trenches. But now, uncertainty is ahead, I do not know yet how life will develop,” said Rumyantsev on his way out of the colony and added that he plans to take care of his health.

“Inside, I was thinking: How would coming home look like? Will people ask questions? They do ask questions. I don’t know what to say, my head is not in order yet. There is no feeling that I am free, because, you know, nothing particulary good has happened on the outside. There’s no euphoria.”

“For me, it went smoothly,” he said about the time spent behind bars. “God willing, others won’t end up here.”