US EditionRussia Jails Photographer for 16 Years for Handing Material to US Journalist
- On 27 June 2025, a court in Perm sentenced Grigory Skvortsov, a photographer from the city, to 16 years in a maximum-security prison on charges of treason related to his transmission of details concerning Soviet-era underground bunkers to an American journalist.
- The prosecution charged Skvortsov with treason for sending publicly available archival documents sold separately by the book's author, Dmitry Yurkov, amid a surge of politically motivated treason cases after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
- Skvortsov denied wrongdoing, stating he had no access to state secrets, no malicious intent, and only shared materials publicly available online or purchasable in Russia, while the trial was held entirely behind closed doors.
- Lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov described the case as ridiculous, emphasizing that Skvortsov lacked the ability to determine what was classified as a state secret. He also pointed out that responsibility was being unfairly placed on Skvortsov rather than on whoever actually released the information.
- Skvortsov's sentencing reflects Russia's expanded state secret definitions and ongoing crackdown on journalists and researchers, with supporters hoping for a prisoner swap as his only remaining chance for release.
25 Articles
25 Articles
On Thursday, Russian justice sentenced Grigori Skvortsov, a 35-year-old photographer, to sixteen years in prison for the charge of "tradition." This native of Perm, near the Urals in the European part of Russia, made the mistake of sharing historical documents with public access, complementary to the book 'Secret Soviet Bunkers: Urban Fortifications of 1930-1960', with an American journalist. He sent archival photos, also declassified and legall…
Grigory Skwortskov is the next media operator to have to go to a Russian prison because of alleged treason. Until the last time, the 35-year-old insisted on his innocence – despite mistreatment by the FSB, as he says.
The Straits Times
South China Morning PostRussia jails photographer for 16 years for handing material to US journalist
A Russian court said on Thursday it had found a photographer, Grigory Skvortsov, guilty of treason and jailed him for 16 years after Skvortsov said he had passed detailed information about once secret Soviet-era bunkers to a U.S. journalist. Read more at straitstimes.com.
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