accused of passing information to kyiv, Russian engineer sentenced to 16 years in prison

Russian engineer from strategic company accused of passing information to Ukraine “military and technical”was sentenced to 16 years in prison for “high treason” in the Urals, a local court said Tuesday.

Danil Moukhametov, 32, an engineer at the Uralvagonzavod company, one of the largest tank manufacturers in the world, located in Nizhny Tagil, was arrested in 2023 by the Russian security services (FSB) with his wife Victoria, according to a statement from the Sverdlovsk Regional Court. Accused of having “provided Ukrainian special services with military and technical information”M. Moukhametov and “partially admitted his guilt”according to the court that sentenced him “to 16 years of reclusion in a harsh prison camp”.

Victoria Moukhametova, who also worked at Uralvagonzavod, was sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison in early October for the same reasons, according to the state news agency RIA Novosti. Since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, the trials for “treason”, “terrorism” or “espionage”which always carry heavy penalties, have multiplied. Furthermore, thousands of people have been sanctioned, threatened or imprisoned because of their opposition to the conflict in Ukraine.