As Novaya Gazeta Europe writes, citing a Vyorstka article, attempts to determine the reasons for Kynev’s detention did not produce a substantive answer. One of the interlocutors paraphrased the response as: “The court [on the arrest] has already taken place, the investigation will not backtrack on anything”.
Another source said he learned about the detention from the news, as did his colleagues. He also claims that the first deputy head of the presidential administration, Sergei Kiriyenko, was not aware of Kynev’s prosecution, but the publication was unable to confirm this additionally.
Kynev was detained on September 24 with the participation of FSB officers, and the next day the Perovsky District Court of Moscow sent him to pretrial detention. The political scientist is charged with the illegal production, sale, or shipment of narcotics on a large scale; this article carries a penalty of 10 to 20 years in prison.
According to the lawyer, Kynev does not admit guilt. He studies Russian elections and regional politics, previously headed the analytical department of the Golos movement, actively commented on the September State Duma elections, and spoke in support of New People.
One of Vyorstka’s interlocutors suggested that the drug-related article may have been chosen to avoid talk about the political nature of the prosecution. An election expert close to the presidential administration also suggested that the case could have become a signal of the inadmissibility of cooperation between a parliamentary party and a person whom the Justice Ministry added to the register of “foreign agents” in February 2026.
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