Evidence

Multiple outlets (Meduza, The Moscow Times, The Bell, and various aggregators) reported that political scientist Yekaterina Schulmann said on her show 'Status' (Sept 29, 2026) that fellow political scientist Alexander Kynev, arrested on drug charges, had his leg broken in two places and was subjected to electric shocks in an effort to force him to confess to treason, and that he refused. Independently, the human rights group Slovo Zashchite and Meduza reported (citing sources) that Kynev was badly beaten during detention and hospitalized with two lower-leg fractures at the Matrosskaya Tishina pretrial detention center hospital — this part is corroborated by a source separate from Schulmann. However, Kynev's lawyer Mikhail Biryukov told the outlet Ekho that 'the lawyers have no documents confirming what Schulmann said,' and Schulmann herself did not disclose how she obtained the information. Yabloko party leader Nikolai Rybakov has called for an official investigation into the torture allegations, but no outcome has been reported. No fact-checking organization (Reuters Fact Check, AFP Fact Check, Bellingcat, EUvsDisinfo) has published an assessment of this specific claim.