A Russian soldier released in a prisoner exchange with Ukraine has been sentenced to 4 years in prison by a Moscow court, after giving interviews to a Ukrainian blogger while in captivity, according to Moscow Times, which cites the news publication Mediazona.
The Moscow city court found Pavel Guguyev guilty of the charges of “confidential cooperation” with foreign citizens, notes the aforementioned source. Guguyev was serving a 12-year sentence in a high-security prison for murder, bodily harm, and theft before joining the invasion.
From prison, he went to the front
With two years of his sentence remaining, he signed a military contract and was deployed to Ukraine, where he was subsequently captured.
While in captivity, Guguyev gave an interview to Ukrainian blogger Dmitri Karpenko, in which he described the heavy losses suffered by Russia on the battlefield, comments that quickly went viral.
Guguyev gave a second interview to Karpenko in July 2023, after he was released in a prisoner exchange and returned to Russia.
He again criticized Russia’s military leadership and claimed that officials had urged him to publicly state that his first interview was given “under pressure” from the Ukrainian side.
Guguyev was arrested again in June 2024 and placed in pre-trial detention. Now, he has been sentenced to 4 years in prison.
Details, HERE