Pro-war Russian blogger sentenced to 18 months for alleged extremism

A Russian-controlled court in the occupied Donetsk region handed down an 18-month jail term to Tetiana Montian, a Ukrainian-born blogger who backs Russia’s war but openly denounces Kremlin officials. The conviction stems from a 2022 video where she called for the "taking down" of regime propagandists, a statement she maintains was meant as a call for account bans, not physical harm. Montian, born in Kerch in 1972, practiced law and activism, supported Russian forces in the Donbas since 2014, and acquired Russian citizenship after moving to Russia in 2021.

She has previously addressed the United Nations Security Council, portrayed Ukraine as a Western colony, and later defended the full-scale invasion while lambasting Putin for strategic failures and labeling propagandist Vladimir Solovyov a fascist. In February 2026 she warned of unchecked terror in occupied Donbas. The court also imposed a two-year ban on her managing internet sites, echoing earlier imprisonments of other pro-war critics like Igor Girkin, Andrei Kurshin, and Sergei Udaltsov.