Russian photographer gets 16 years in prison for giving publicly available book to U.S. journalist
Source: Grigory Skvortsov support group
A court in the Russian city of Perm has sentenced photographer Grigory Skvortsov to 16 years in a high-security prison on treason charges, according to a Telegram channel run by his supporters.
Skvortsov was arrested in late November 2023. The human rights group Department One reports that he was accused of giving an American journalist a copy of historian Dmitry Yurkov’s book Secret Soviet Bunkers: Special Urban Fortifications from the 1930s–1960s, which was publicly available for purchase in Russia at the time.
Skvortsov also said he had bought declassified archival photographs to supplement the book and shared those with the same journalist.
Prosecutors had requested an 18-year sentence. Skvortsov pleaded not guilty.
