In the first six months of the year 2025, courts in Russia have issued 224 sentences in cases of state treason, espionage, and confidential collaboration with foreign states — an absolute record for the entire modern history of the country. According to data from Kirill Parubets’ Analytical Center, prepared for the “First Department” project, 232 people were involved in these cases.
Taking into account that there were 117 working days in the first semester, it turns out that in Russia, on average, courts issued almost two sentences per day (1.98). For comparison, throughout the year 2023, 167 people were convicted for these crimes, and in the first half of 2024 — 143. All sentences were condemnatory, and all defendants received actual prison sentences.
Since the beginning of the war, 774 people have been convicted in Russia for state treason, espionage, and confidential collaboration. In 2025, for the first time, coercive medical measures were applied against defendants in three treason cases.
Before the large-scale invasion of Ukraine, such cases were rare: until 2022, courts issued, on average, one sentence per month for treason or espionage. Then the pace abruptly increased: 14 per month in 2023, 30 per month in 2024, and already 39 per month in the first half of 2025.
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