Russia sentences dual Belgian-Russian citizen to 16 years in penal colony for treason
A regional court in Pskov, in northwestern Russia, has sentenced dual Belgian-Russian citizen Mikhail Lochtchinine to 16 years in a maximum-security penal colony on treason charges, human rights NGO Department One reported on Tuesday.
Lochtchinine had lived in Europe since the late 1990s, most recently in Germany, and became a Belgian citizen in 2000. In the summer of 2025 he attempted to enter Russia to visit his father, who had suffered a heart attack. He was detained at a border checkpoint in the Pskov region after officials found correspondence with several contacts in Ukraine, including a Ukrainian ex-girlfriend, on his phone.
Prosecutors in Russia reportedly argued that a money transfer Lochtchinine made to his ex-girlfriend in 2022 amounted to “financial assistance to representatives of a foreign state in activities directed against the security of the Russian Federation”.
Prior to his sentencing, Lochtchinine was first detained with Ukrainian prisoners of war in Belgorod, near the Ukrainian border, before being transferred to a pre-trial detention centre in Pskov.
According to his family and defence, he repeatedly suffered cruel treatment at the hands of the Russian authorities, including the confiscation of his glasses, beatings, and prolonged isolation. Lochtchinine’s sister told breaking news outlet ASTRA that his vision had deteriorated sharply during his detention, and that he had been unable to access medical care.
Earlier in May, Amnesty International issued an appeal for urgent medical care for Lochtchinine, who is at risk of going blind due to a detached retina. The organisation called for his immediate release from detention on “fabricated charges”.
Consular support for Lochtchinine is complicated because of his dual nationality, which Russia does not recognise, and the fact he entered Russia using a Russian passport. Since August, the Belgian embassy in Moscow has made requests to visit Lochtchinine to monitor his health, but has not received a response.
Lochtchinine is not the first dual national to be sentenced by Russian courts for alleged financial assistance to Ukraine. In April last year, US-Russian dual citizen Ksenia Karelina was released in a prisoner swap in Abu Dhabi, in exchange for a Russian businessman imprisoned in the US. She had been serving a 12-year sentence for treason over a $50 donation she made to a pro-Ukrainian nonprofit in 2022.
