Russian Military Court Sentences Activist Leonid Melekhin to Six Years After Failed US Asylum Bid and Return to Russia

Mediazona reports that a military court in Yekaterinburg sentenced Perm activist Leonid Melekhin to six years in a general-regime penal colony. The trial was held entirely behind closed doors at the prosecutor’s request. In the summer of 2024 Melekhin requested political asylum in the United States and was denied; he spent roughly ten months in U.S. immigration detention. He was arrested by the FSB immediately upon his arrival in July 2025.

How he came to return is contested. Meduza reports his court-appointed lawyer said he returned through “self-deportation” despite knowing he could face criminal prosecution, whereas The Bulwark describes him as deported by the United States.