Crimean citizen journalist Ruslan Suleymanov, sentenced to 14 years in prison by Russia, says he has been experiencing eyesight problems and threatened with solitary confinement.
His wife Elzara Sifersha, who visited her husband in colony No. 17 in Murmansk (Russia), where he is imprisoned, reported this to Crimean Solidarity.
According to Mrs. Sifresha, Suleymanov’s health can be described as normal, but he has developed eye problems.
“We don’t know why yet, but the whites of his eyes are turning red. Perhaps because of the stress at work, because he sews a lot and he has no time to fully rest during breaks from work,” the wife said.
Despite the “normal” relations with the prison administration, the journalist has already been promised a transfer to a high-security block.
He has already been placed under targeted supervision in July 2025 due to “the gravity of the incriminated articles.” In the Verkhneuralsk prison (Chelyabinsk region, Russia), where the journalist had been kept until being moved to Murmansk, he was also placed under targeted supervision for “a tendency to escape and attachment to extremist ideology”.
During Mrs. Sifresha’s visit, Ruslan Suleymanov was able to see his children for the first time in a long while. He receives food “in small portions due to the strict regime.”
“Sometimes they serve chicken, fish, so he can eat without any obstacles,” said his wife.
Ruslan Suleymanov is a citizen journalist with Crimean Solidarity. He was detained by Russian security forces during the mass searches in the homes of Crimean Tatars in 2019. In 2022, a Russian court sentenced him to 14 years in prison on charges of terrorism. Ruslan Suleymanov is on the Institute of Mass Information’s list of media workers unlawfully detained by Russia.
