French cyclist freed by Russia after crossing border illegally says detention was ‘strange experience’

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - In this handout picture taken on October 23, 2025 and released by the united press service of the Primorsky Krai region courts, French cyclist Sofiane Sehili, who was arrested on suspicion of crossing the Russian border illegally while attempting to complete his world record attempt for cycling across Eurasia, stands inside a defendants' cage during a court hearing in the far eastern settlement of Pogranichnyy. — Primorsky Krai via AFP

TOULOUSE, Oct 29 — A French cyclist freed after weeks in Russian jail for illegally crossing the border on Monday described his time in the country as a “rather strange experience” but said the Russians he met were “friendly”.

Sofiane Sehili, 44, was arrested on the Russian-Chinese border in early September while attempting to break the record for the fastest endurance cycle from Lisbon to Vladivostok.

Sehili, who describes himself as an ultra-endurance racer and adventure cyclist, had faced up to two years in Russian prison.

But a court in the Russian Far East last Thursday freed the Frenchman despite finding him guilty of the border-crossing charge. He returned to France on Sunday.

Speaking to AFP, following his more than seven weeks in detention in the town of Ussuriisk, Sehili sounded upbeat, saying he was not mistreated and that his experience helped him learn about the Russian people.

“It was a rather strange experience, since I ended up spending two months in Russia and all the people I met were criminals,” he said.

“But I think it still helped me discover a little bit about what the Russian people are like,” he added.

“Overall, I still met people who were friendly and willing to share. When they cooked, we would all sit down together for dinner,” he said.

The hardest thing, Sehili said, was not knowing whether he would have to spend two years in Russian jail.

“I had some very difficult moments psychologically,” said Sehili, who is based in the southwest of France.

It was difficult, “the uncertainty, not having control over my own fate, not knowing for several weeks whether the final decision would be to fine me and let me go home, or to put me in prison,” he said.

Several Westerners have been detained in Russia since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

French national Laurent Vinatier was arrested in Russia in 2024. He was sentenced for breaching the country’s foreign agents law, in a case decried by France as “arbitrary”. He is serving a prison sentence in Russia.

‘Not very smart’ 

Sehili did not complain of mistreatment in detention.

“Every time I was interviewed, everything was noted down and recorded,” he said.

“It’s not a place where they take you, throw you in a cell and you don’t know exactly what’s going on.”

He admitted it was “not very smart” of him to have crossed the Russian border illegally.

“I tried to cross the border legally, but unfortunately that wasn’t possible that day,” he said.

“It might have been possible the next day, but I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to break the record. So I decided to try to cross the border illegally.”

After making his way along the border, he managed to cross into Russia, he said.

“In China, there is a lot of control, so I didn’t think I would be able to follow the border until I found a place where it would be porous, but that’s what happened,” he said, adding that he had trudged “through the forest for four hours”.

He crossed the border into Russia on foot. “I had to keep going through a pretty thick forest for several more hours,” he said.

“But night was falling and I told myself that this had gone on long enough and that it wasn’t very smart to try to do this anyway,” he said.

He thought that “if I presented myself to the authorities and tried to make them believe that I had done all this unintentionally, I still had a chance of being sent back to China relatively quickly”, he said.

But it was “a bit naive” of him to think that the Russians would allow him to get away with it.

“The situation in Russia is still quite tense, so it didn’t work,” he said.

“They immediately seized my GPS, my phone and my cameras, they examined everything, and I finally found myself unable to continue lying to them by making them believe that I hadn’t done it on purpose.”

“From then on, things took their normal course,” he said.

“I was treated like anyone else who had done what I did.” — AFP