Arkhangelsk FSB opens two treason cases in a week

The secret police this week posted a video of the arrest that took place about two months ago. A 37-year old man was detained by two masked FSB officers at his office in the tallest building in Arkhangelsk, next to the Lenin square. A third officer was filming. 

The film that are reposted by several local media, though, looks staged. 

Siting behind his desk, the 37-year old and his colleague do not at all look surprised when the FSB officers enters the office of "Just" - a law firm in Arkhangelsk. The detained is a lawyer. 

According to the FSB, the man was this week charged with state treason.    

"The suspect, on the instructions of a foreign curator, collected and passed on to representatives of Ukrainian intelligence information about the deployment and redeployment of units of the Russian Aerospace Forces, which are classified as official secrets in the field of defense,"  the FSB in Arkhangelsk region said.

It is unclear why it took two months from the arrest before any information about the man's whereabout became public. 

State treason carries a punishment of 12 to 20 years. In 2023, the State Duma introduced life imprisonment as an additional punishment option for Article 275, the treason paragraph in the criminal code.

"1937 is back," a person wrote on social media after the arrest in Arkhangelsk became known on Thursday. The post was soon delated. 

1937 is referring to the year Stalinist show-trials reached record high during the repressive period known as the Great Terror.

Russia has become a country of fear. Few dare to speak out. 

Earlier this week, another man was detained in Konosha, a town in the southern part of Arkhangelsk Oblast, near the border with Vologda Oblast.  

Little information is made public, but according to media outlet News29, FSB has charged the 42-year old suspect of "collecting and transmitting data on the Russian air defense system to Ukrainian military intelligence."

The alleged crime to place in 2023. 

No one walks free anymore 

Russian authorities have since the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine opened a unprecedented number of treason cases. According to exiled human lawyer Ivan Pavlov, the founder of “Pervy Otdel” (“First Department”), there used to be two or three sentences a year before 2014.

"In 2015 there where 15 high treason sentences," Pavlov tells. In 2022 there were 16 and in 2023 it grew to 39 verdicts. The number of people currently charged with high treason is unknown as it takes up to two years from a case is initiated until a verdict in court is made public. 

Last time a Russian court formally acquitted a citizen charged for treason in the form of espionage was Aleksandr Nikitin, the nuclear safety expert that works for the Norwegian Bellona foundation. 

Nikitin walked free from all charges on December 29, 1999 after a ruling in the city court of St. Petersburg. Three days later, on New Year's eve, was the former chief of FSB, Vladimir Putin, appointed president.