Russian geodesist and scientist Valery Kachin, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison on treason charges, has begun a dry hunger strike at a pretrial detention center in Udmurtia, according to a report on Telegram by the human rights group Pervy Otdel.
Kachin disclosed the hunger strike in a letter, writing that he had completely stopped eating and drinking after being subjected to abuse and physical violence by detention center staff. According to Kachin, he has been repeatedly held in a punishment cell, first being placed there for seven days, then for 10 days, and later twice for 15 days.
“This morning, after we exchanged insults, they threw me to the floor. I hit my face on the floor, and my elbows and knees are scraped. This morning I began a hunger strike without food or water. Tell everyone,” he wrote.
Human rights advocates said Kachin, 39, is now in an extremely weakened condition. He is 182 centimeters tall (six feet) and weighs around 60 kilograms (132 pounds). Kachin was a junior researcher at the Bastak Nature Reserve in Birobidzhan, in Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Region, where he worked with geographic information systems. His prosecution became public in late 2022. In January 2025, he was sentenced to 14 years in a strict-regime penal colony on a charge of “high treason.”
The specific allegations against him have not been made public. Kachin himself said the case was connected to his “position on Ukraine and what is happening now.” On social media, he had expressed support for Ukraine, for protesters in Belarus, and for the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
