Dual US-Russian citizen Ksenia Karelina was sentenced to 12 years in prison for treason in August for donating money to a charity supporting Ukraine. Photo: EPA-EFE/STRINGER
Over 1,000 people have been charged with treason, colluding with a foreign state and espionage since the current Russian Criminal Code came into force in 1997, human rights NGO First Department reported on Friday.
Nearly 80% of all such cases — 792 — have come since Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine in February 2022, First Department wrote. Of those, at least 359 have resulted in prison sentences in 2024, the NGO added.
There has not been a single acquittal in any such case that has gone to trial since Vladimir Putin came to power, First Department said.
Prior to April 2023, being found guilty of treason led to a prison sentence of 12 to 20 years, but an amendment has now introduced life imprisonment.
In one of the most recent treason cases, dual US-Russian citizen Ksenia Karelina was sentenced to 12 years in August for treason for donating money to a charity supporting Ukraine.
In a similar conviction, Tatyana Laletina, a 21-year-old student from the Siberian city of Tomsk, was convicted and sentenced to nine years in prison in July for donating €27 to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, while an art teacher from Russia’s central Lipetsk region was sentenced to 20 years in prison for treason in June for transferring cryptocurrency worth €220 to Ukraine.
The Kremlin has also targeted some of Russia’s leading scientists, with at least a dozen specialists in hypersonic technology, apparently favoured by Vladimir Putin for use in war, charged with treason since 2015 for “passing state secrets to foreign countries”.
