Trade union activist Oleg Tyryshkin, convicted over a comment about Akhmad Kadyrov, died in custody

Trade union activist Oleg Tyryshkin, convicted over a comment about Akhmad Kadyrov, died in custody

Tyryshkin died in a Kemerovo hospital, where he had been taken from Detention Center No. 4 in Anzhero-Sudzhensk.

🟧 The 64-year-old convict was due to be released in October 2026. However, he was transferred from a penal colony to a detention center — law enforcement officers told him about a new criminal case over comments on social media.

“They kept looking and looking for something. They just could not calm down,” says Tyryshkin’s common-law wife.

🟧 The pensioner regularly reported headaches and back pain, weakness, and an overall deterioration in his health. At the same time, he was constantly transferred between different facilities.

“They bounced him from the colony to a psychiatric hospital, then back again. Sometimes we did not even know where he was. He told us over the phone that he was in a detention center,” his wife says.

🟧 On February 4, Tyryshkin developed heart problems. He was taken to a hospital in Kemerovo, where he died soon afterward. His wife was told about his death only on February 8.

The case over the comment about Kadyrov

In December 2024, Tyryshkin was sentenced to two years in a penal colony under the article on justifying terrorism.

The case was opened over a comment about the killing of Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov during a terrorist attack in Grozny.

“It was about Kadyrov, father Kadyrov, who was blown up at the stadium. Well, someone wrote something like: ‘so they blew him up there.’ I simply replied: ‘They blew him up — good riddance. He killed a lot of Russian soldiers.’ And that was it,” Tyryshkin said of his comment.

Health problems

The pensioner was given a real prison sentence despite having a brain cyst and an organic personality disorder.

In March 2025, the sentence was upheld. Tyryshkin took part in the hearing by video link from the detention center. He said he felt unwell and was lying on the floor of his cell: “My legs do not work anymore. I do not know what to do. Why am I being tortured like this?”

The judge accused the pensioner of faking it.

Trade union activity

Before retiring, Tyryshkin was a miner and trade union activist. In the late 1990s, he took part in blocking the Trans-Siberian Railway together with other miners. In 2009, he headed an independent miners’ union in Anzhero-Sudzhensk.

Tyryshkin also worked with the medical workers’ union Deystviye and, in 2019, helped orderlies and junior nurses who were being forced to write applications to be transferred into cleaner positions.

Tyryshkin was charged three times over comments criticizing the authorities and law enforcement. He told OVD-Info about being beaten by law enforcement during one detention and about harassment by pro-government media.

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Oleg Tyryshkin / Photo: Meduza