Recent statistics show that four to six people face trial for state treason per year in Russia. In 2014, this number rose sharply: 15 people were sent to prison on treason charges. But by the end of 2015, this record might be broken again. The number of espionage cases seems to suggest that Russia is in the throes of ‘spymania’.
Yet given these cases are all being investigated and processed in secret, the information we have is limited. In November 2012, Vladimir Putin signed a document introducing changes to three articles of the Criminal Code. Article 275 (Treason) was given an extended description, including the formula ‘variously aiding another state in activities aimed against the security of the Russian Federation’, which expanded the definition of treason. The new version of Article 283 (Revealing a state secret) makes it possible to initiate proceedings against an individual who does not have access to state secrets but who may—in one way or another—discover and reveal them.
A well-oiled scheme
Amidst recent cases of ‘spymania’, the story of Svetlana Davydova, the mother of seven from a town near Smolensk, stands out. In January 2015, Davydova was arrested on charges of treason following a telephone call to the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow: she overheard an army officer discussing troop movements on the bus, and reported this information to the embassy.
