He donated 50 euros to the Ukrainian army and was detained while trying to leave Russia.
A Russian court on Friday sentenced a man to 13 years in prison for alleged treason after he donated 50 euros to the Ukrainian army. TASR informs about it according to the report of the AFP agency. A Moscow court said that 34-year-old Alexander Krajchik “provided financial assistance to a foreign state (to support) activities against the security of the Russian Federation,” committing treason.
Russian state media and rights groups said Krajchik sent 50 euros to a German-based fund that raises money to support the Ukrainian military two days after the start of Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
He was detained while trying to leave Russia for Turkey
He was detained in 2023 while trying to leave Russia for Turkey a few days after the Federal Security Service (FSB) confiscated his mobile phone during a search at his work, the human rights group Memorial rights reported.
The man was sentenced already on November 1, but the court informed about the verdict only on Friday, writes AFP. According to the court, Krajčik was “motivated by political and ideological intolerance”.
A Russian-American citizen, ballerina Xenia Karelinová, was accused of treason in a similar case in August, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison by a court in Yekaterinburg. At the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Karelinová donated 46 euros to a pro-Ukrainian charity.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has been investigating dozens of cases of “treason” against individuals who allegedly support Ukraine. These are various accusations, from arson or sabotage on Russian military facilities and infrastructure objects to providing information on Russian military facilities or sending funds to groups supporting Kyiv, writes AFP.
