Russia sentences a photographer to 16 years for giving a book to a US journalist.

Moscow.- The Perm Regional Court sentenced photographer Grigori Skvortsov to 16 years in prison for high treason, after giving an American journalist a book freely available in Russia. According to a statement from his associates on Telegram, the only hope for Skvortsov is a possible prisoner exchange. The photographer was arrested in November 2023 in St. Petersburg by the Federal Security Service (FSB), after having handed over a copy of the book Secret Soviet Bunkers: Special Urban Fortification between 1930 and 1960, by the Russian historian Dmitri Yurkov. The work was published in 2021 and has been reviewed even by official media such as Komsomolskaya Pravda and Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

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Although the book contains declassified information and is publicly accessible, it is believed that Skvortsov's critical stance on the war in Ukraine may have influenced his judicial persecution. It's not the first time the content of this work has generated controversy: in 2022, authorities tried to censor an online conference by Yúrkov for allegedly revealing sensitive information about military infrastructure. The case of Skvortsov adds to a growing wave of treason convictions in Russia, many of them for actions that were not previously considered crimes.