Russian Scientist Faces Hefty Fine Over Alleged Donations to Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Group

The prosecution has requested a fine of 450,000 rubles (about $5,000) for Sergei Abramov, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and chief researcher at the Aylamazyan Institute for Program Systems.

Abramov is accused of financing an extremist organization: according to investigators, he allegedly transferred money to Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, which is designated as extremist in Russia.

The press service of the Pereslavl District Court reported the prosecution’s request, according to TASS.

Abramov denies any involvement in the alleged payments and insists that the case files contain no evidence proving he was aware of or authorized the transactions. His legal defense is demanding a full acquittal. The verdict is expected on July 11.

Speaking to RBC, Abramov explained that the case was initiated over seven transactions made from a bank card registered in his name.

The indictment claims these payments took place between August 2021 and February 2022, totaling 7,000 rubles (about $80).

According to Abramov, the laptop from which the transactions supposedly occurred was running continuously, lacked password protection, and automatically forwarded work emails. IT specialists called as witnesses in court confirmed that under such circumstances, anyone nearby could have accessed the device and conducted actions on behalf of the user—including making payments or logging into personal accounts using saved, unencrypted passwords. Two-factor authentication was reportedly not enabled for these operations.

The criminal case against Abramov was launched in the spring of 2023. On April 10, his residence was searched, after which he was detained and held in a detention center for one day.

Starting April 12, he was placed under house arrest for nearly six months, until the restrictions were eased to a travel ban in October 2023.

On November 30, the court, at the investigators’ request, ordered Abramov to undergo a psychological evaluation at a psychiatric hospital, where he spent 12 days. The assessment found him mentally competent.

Sergei Abramov is a leading expert in computer science.

In 2006, he received the Russian Government Prize for his role in developing and producing the "SKIF" family of supercomputers, which ranked among the world’s top 100 high-performance computing systems.