In Russian prisons, history and Goethe seem to be almost outlawed. At least, that’s how it looks today: what civilized countries consider normal—and even a tool for rehabilitation—education, reading, fiction—turns in modern Russia into a pretext for additional punishment. And if a history textbook and a book of poetry can land someone in a punishment cell, what comes next? Will artistic speech become grounds for humiliation and new disciplinary sanctions?

This “punishment for books” logic is not a metaphor or a journalistic device. It is a concrete story unfolding right now around RusNews journalist Roman Ivanov.

The Kolomna City Court refused RusNews journalist Roman Ivanov a mitigation of his detention regime. As a form of mitigation, Roman asked to be transferred to corrective labor.

To create a formal pretext to deny mitigation, Roman was given a disciplinary sanction because, during daytime, two books were found on his bed—a history textbook and Goethe—after which Ivanov was sent to SHIZO (a punishment isolation cell) for three days. Roman himself calls this term an “introductory walk.”

In March of last year, the Korolyov City Court of the Moscow Region sentenced RusNews journalist Roman Ivanov to 7 years in a penal colony under the article on “fake news” about the Russian army for pacifist posts on social media. On May 13, the Moscow Regional Court upheld Roman’s sentence—7 years in a general-regime penal colony.

Roman Ivanov is the second RusNews journalist after Maria Ponomarenko to be sentenced for “fake news” about the Russian Armed Forces.