Professor Nikolai Zyuzev from Komi was sentenced to seven years in a maximum-security penal colony. 

The Komi Supreme Court found Zyuzev guilty of treason.

According to the FSB, in February 2022, he began implementing a 12-pronged project. These allegedly include training leaders of national liberation movements of Russia's indigenous peoples abroad and "collecting information on behalf of EU agencies."

The FSB claims the professor received over two million euros from 12 foreign organizations for this work. Among those named are the Hanns Seidel Foundation, the Prague Center for Civil Society Development, the Swedish Institute, Chatham House, and the Black Sea Fund for Regional Cooperation. All of these organizations are considered "undesirable" in Russia.

Nikolay Zyuzev — 69-year-old Doctor of Philosophy and one of the renowned researchers of the legacy of the Russian-American sociologist Pitirim Sorokin, one of the founders of the theory of social stratification and mobility. For several years he taught at Syktyvkar state university.

In 2008, Zyuzev moved to To Canada He received Canadian citizenship, taught at the University of Toronto, and later returned to Russia. After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he returned to Canada, but continued to visit Russia periodically.

Zyuzev was arrested in late June 2025. Initially, it was reported that he was being charged with "confidential cooperation" with a foreign state or organization. The case was later tried under the article on "treason."