Yaroslavl man sentenced to 14 years for allegedly sending photos of soldiers’ graves to Ukrainian intelligence — Russia’s first known treason conviction of its kind

Filed 15h ago · Via Meduza · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: CBP Photography · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

A court in Yaroslavl sentenced Nikolai Shcherbakov, 48, to 14 years in a maximum-security penal colony for treason, over photographs he allegedly took at a memorial cemetery and sent to Ukrainian security services.

The court's press service says he 'systematically visited' the site starting in October 2024, covertly photographing and filming military graves.

Independent Russian outlet 7×7 says this is the first known treason conviction of its kind, and journalists elsewhere report a broader pattern of authorities detaining and publicly shaming people photographing graves.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A camera pointed at a gravestone gets you fourteen years now, which tells you less about the photographer and more about what the state doesn't want counted. When a government starts treating a cemetery like a classified facility, it's usually because the number of headstones is the actual secret. Fourteen years for a photo is a heavy way to keep a tally quiet.

Source: Read the original at Meduza → Scored: Super Circus · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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