Chumakova is accused under paragraph “d” of part 2 of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on the dissemination of “fakes” about the Armed Forces and under part 2 of Article 330.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on violating the rules governing the activities of a “foreign agent”. The first episode concerns nine ASTRA publications and Chumakova’s personal Telegram channel in March and April 2022. They reported on events in Bucha, Kyiv region, based on the words of local residents and eyewitnesses.
The investigation considers this information unreliable and claims that the publications were made out of political hatred and hatred toward Russian servicemen as a social group. Among these materials were interviews with relatives of the dead and accounts from Bucha residents. In particular, ASTRA published the account of 14-year-old Yura Nechiporenko, who said that a Russian soldier shot his father in front of him in Bucha near Kyiv, as well as the account of a city resident who spent two weeks there during the occupation and provided the publication with video recordings of looting.
Defense lawyer Zakhar Lebedev argued in closing statements that the publications identified the sources of the information — residents and eyewitnesses — so the materials were not presented as facts independently established by the author. He also referred to the chronology: the prosecution relies on the Defense Ministry’s position, published on April 3, 2022, as proof that the information was false, but five of the nine publications appeared before that date, and another one on April 3. According to the defense, Chumakova could not have known the ministry’s position at the time most of the materials were published.
The second episode is related to the legislation on “foreign agents”: Chumakova is accused of distributing ASTRA materials without the required labeling. The defense notes that Chumakova was not included in the register of “foreign agents”, and in the register of individuals she was listed as affiliated with a “foreign agent”. The “foreign agent” status belongs to ASTRA itself, so, according to Lebedev, the requirements did not apply directly to Chumakova.
At the end of the closing statements, the lawyer asked for her acquittal on both counts and for her right to rehabilitation to be recognized. The case is being heard in absentia, and Chumakova is outside Russia. The ASTRA founder was already placed on the interstate wanted list in November 2025 in the case of disseminating “fakes” about the Russian army; in October 2025, she was added to the list of “extremists and terrorists”, and in January 2026, another criminal case was opened — for evading the duties of a “foreign agent”. On June 1, she was arrested in absentia in the case of military “fakes”; earlier, her mother’s home was searched, and Chumakova herself was repeatedly fined for failing to provide information about herself as the head of a media outlet recognized as a “foreign agent”.
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