Israeli-Russian Zoologist Jailed in Moscow for Small Donations to Navalny's Foundation

A 50-year-old zoologist, Sofia Rosenfeld, who holds both Russian and Israeli citizenship, has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison by a Moscow court for donating less than 80 shekels to the organization of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Russian independent media reported that Rosenfeld was convicted of funding an "extremist" organization based on two transfers of 1,000 rubles each, made in 2021. Rosenfeld, a senior researcher specializing in Arctic geese at the Russian Academy of Sciences, was immediately taken into custody after the verdict. The prosecution had sought a five-year sentence.

Rosenfeld, who moved to Israel with her family in 1990 but returned to Moscow less than two years later, maintained that she had subscribed to a monthly donation to Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) before it was declared "extremist" in Russia. She claimed the payments were debited while she was on a long research expedition without reception, and she canceled the donation as soon as she discovered this. Her defense lawyers submitted a letter to the court in which she requested the payments be stopped.

While admitting to the donations, Rosenfeld partially pleaded guilty, asserting she did not intend to support extremism and was motivated solely by a desire to combat corruption. The judge questioned her, asking if law enforcement agencies were insufficient for the task. Rosenfeld responded that public assistance was necessary, citing her work in environmental conservation where she witnessed the "monstrous forms" corruption could take.

Her defense argued that her actions posed no real danger and that she was, in fact, beneficial. The Anti-Corruption Foundation, founded by Navalny in 2011, gained prominence for its investigations into alleged corruption by senior Russian officials, including a widely viewed exposé on a palace on the Black Sea. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the government has intensified its crackdown on dissent, with political prosecutions reaching a peak in the first year of the war. According to the Russian human rights group OVD-Info, prosecutions for political reasons continue to rise, including against those who donated to Navalny's foundation.

Russia has a history of detaining foreign nationals on legal pretexts and using them as bargaining chips for the release of Russians held abroad. The US advises its citizens against traveling to Russia due to the risk of arbitrary detention. This case echoes the 2019 imprisonment of Israeli Naama Issachar, who served over seven years for a small amount of drugs found in her luggage before being pardoned by President Putin. More recently, American journalist Evan Gershkovich and former Marine Paul Whelan were released from Russia in August 2024 in a significant prisoner exchange.