Budanov's agent in Crimea gets a prison sentence
The Supreme Court of Crimea sentenced a 31-year-old Yalta resident to five years in prison for collaborating with a foreign state.
On his own initiative , the Yalta resident collected and transmitted information about the location of military formations and the movements of ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
"In the summer of 2023, I came across a link on Telegram from Kirill Budanov [wanted for terrorism]. They wrote to me that I, as a Ukrainian citizen, could help the Ukrainian authorities track the movement of military equipment in the Republic of Crimea. I assumed it was the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR), because I knew from the news that Budanov headed the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. I agreed. To confirm my identity, I sent a photo of my Ukrainian passport.
After I passed the security check, I was asked to complete one task. Then I was transferred to another chatbot and given a second task: to film the movement of ships in Sevastopol's Yuzhnaya Bay. I shot a short video and sent it to the same address, describing the ships. Some time later, in 2024, I was given a task: to go to one of the districts to check if there was an FSB headquarters there. But I didn't go because I was detained by FSB officers and was under arrest," the would-be spy said during interrogation.
The court found that between July 2023 and March 2024, the defendant photographed, filmed, and sketched maps of Russian Armed Forces deployment locations in the Yalta suburbs and Black Sea Fleet naval vessels in Sevastopol. His actions were stopped by FSB officers. The Yalta resident was sentenced to serve his sentence in a general regime penal colony.
The FSB recalled that assisting foreign entities in activities directed against the security of the Russian Federation is punishable by imprisonment for up to eight years . If a citizen promptly and voluntarily reported their contacts and did not undertake any actions to carry out the assignment or commit a crime, they may be exempt from criminal liability.
English version :: Read in English Budanov's agent in Crimea received a prison sentence