The Tver Regional Court sentenced 33-year-old businessman Sergei Kabanov to 12.5 years in prison on charges of high treason (Article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to information from the card on the court’s website, this happened on the third of July. According to Mediazona, information about the verdict was confirmed by Kabanov’s father.
The businessman was arrested in Moscow in 2021. For what exact reason a criminal case was opened against him is unknown, however, according to Kabanov himself, it is related to his work “in the field of aerospace industry development” and relations with the United States. Before his arrest, Kabanov was the general director of TTK Sodruzhestvo, which sold fuel.
On April 28, 2021, the Lefortovo District Court of Moscow sent Kabanov into custody, and in 2023 he was transferred to Tver pre-trial detention center-1. The case began to be considered by the Tver Regional Court.
Mediazona writes that on the day of the verdict, Kabanov sent a letter to Maria Bovenko, who corresponds with political prisoners from pre-trial detention center No. 1. In it, he commented on the sentence he received: “There is confusion in words and fermentation in my head… A couple of hours ago I arrived from court with a sentence: 12 years and six months of imprisonment in a maximum security colony and one year of restriction of freedom.”
In April 2023, Vladimir Putin signed a law amending the Criminal Code, providing for the introduction of life imprisonment under the article on “high treason.” Previously, the maximum penalty was imprisonment for a term of 20 years. The concept of “treason” includes, among other things, espionage, assistance to a foreign organization in the fight against the security of Russia, and switching to the enemy’s side during a war. The last point applies not only to the military, but also to civilians.
