Hi, this is Yulia Selikhova, the author of Verstka’s investigation into persecution for high treason and espionage...

Hi, this is Yulia Selikhova, the author of Verstka’s investigation into persecution for high treason and espionage.

I found that after 2022, 1,904 people were accused of these crimes, and I found the names of 1,497 of them. This is the most complete list of “traitors” and “spies.” I can no longer write these nouns without quotation marks after reading the information about each of the 1,497 people I managed to identify.

I worked on this piece for two months, and I want to tell you why it took so long and was so difficult.

Information about such people is concealed. For example, there may be a court record listing the criminal statute, but no surname and no substance of the accusation. There may be a news report about a detention that says what the person was accused of and their age, but again gives no name. Then there may be yet another report about the sentence being handed down, where the name and age finally appear. And then I have to compare everything, checking whether the age and the accusation match the news reports and the statutes listed on the court website.

The work was difficult, but—and I hope you will agree with me—it was important. I’m not afraid to make this comparison: knowing the names of those convicted under these articles is just as important as restoring the names of those repressed in Stalin’s time.

I know for certain that for each of the 1,497 people whose names I was able to gather, it matters that we know about them. And it matters for their relatives. And, I believe, for our whole society as well.

And despite how difficult it can sometimes be, I want to keep gathering information about all the other convicted people too. According to my bleak forecast, by the end of 2026, more than 600 more people will be convicted under articles on high treason and espionage.

To continue working on investigations like this, I—and our entire team at Verstka—need your support ❤️‍🔥

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Read the investigation on the Verstka website (with VPN):

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Verstka

1,904 spies and traitors to the motherland after 2022. Verstka’s major investigation into persecution in cases related to state security

Verstka identified the names of 1,497 defendants in high treason and espionage cases—this is the most complete list of the accused