Russia convicted nearly 500 people on espionage-related charges last year

Russian courts handed down 478 convictions on charges of “high treason,” “espionage,” “confidential cooperation with foreigners,” and “aiding the enemy” in 2025 — double the previous year's figure, according to a report by human rights organisation Department One based on data from Parubets Analytics.

“High treason” was by far the most frequently used of these statutes, accounting for 376 convictions, or 78.7% of all espionage-related cases. A further 58 people were convicted of “espionage”, 38 of “confidential cooperation with foreigners”, and just one of “aiding the enemy”.

Analysts have noted that Russian security services frequently reclassify “confidential cooperation” cases as full-blown “high treason,” considering the original charge too lenient. Five defendants were convicted on mixed charges, with four simultaneously prosecuted under both the “high treason” and “espionage” statutes.

Verdicts were handed down across 64 regions, including annexed territories, with nearly half of all cases heard by four Russian military courts and four Russian courts operating in occupied Ukrainian territories. The Southern District Military Court recorded the highest number with 50 verdicts.

Median sentences ran to 15 years for “high treason”, 14 years for “espionage”, and five years for “confidential cooperation”, while at least four defendants received life sentences. The harshest non-life sentence was 27 years. Four out of the five harshest sentences went to Ukrainian nationals. Eight defendants were sent to compulsory psychiatric treatment, two died while under investigation, and seven cases were referred back for charges to be upgraded. Four convictions were also overturned on appeal at the prosecution's request to reclassify the offence as a more serious one.

One-third of all convictions (166) were handed down against Ukrainian citizens, though lawyers warn the true figure is likely much higher. Most such cases are heard in occupied territories, and many Ukrainians are forcibly assigned Russian citizenship before being prosecuted as Russian nationals.

Of the Ukrainian citizens convicted last year, 72 are listed as missing. One had already been unaccounted for since 2019, and another since 2021.

Eighteen of those convicted on national security-related charges are under 20 years old. The youngest person sentenced in 2025 was 18-year-old Yulia Sokolova from the Kherson region, who was only 17 at the time of her arrest. At the other end of the spectrum, 21 of those convicted are over 60, the oldest being 73-year-old Oleksandr Markov from the Zaporizhzhia region.

In most cases, courts have withheld the names and other identifying details of those convicted. Full information was available in only 87 of the published cases.