Russian activists sentenced to 22 years in jail for helping Ukrainian refugees
A Russian activist who helped Ukrainians escape the invasion of Moscow was sentenced to 22 years in prison for treason, her lawyer and Russian media said Friday.
Nadezhda Rossinskaya is also named after Nadin Geisler, who runs a volunteer group called the “Army of Beauty” which claims to help evacuate thousands of people from Russian-occupied territory – numbers that cannot be independently verified.
Some people entered the Bergorod region in southwestern Russia to release Ukraine, where the last open checkpoint was located between the two countries, the group said.
Rossinskaya left Russia in 2023 for Georgia, but decided to return to Belgorod a few months later to coordinate the complex evacuation.
She was detained in an Instagram post in February 2024 calling for donations to Ukrainian troops and was later charged with treason and funding of terrorism, according to Russian court documents and her lawyer Alexey Pryanishnikov.
Trial records compiled by Russian independent media Mediazona show that Rossinskaya denied any misconduct, and her lawyer said she did not write or post.
Prosecutors demanded a 27-year prison sentence for Rossinskaya, who was tried in a military court in Belgorod.
According to Mediazona, Rossinskaya's response was to ask the court to imprison her for 27 years and one day, if convicted, so that her prison term may be the longest ever modern Russia handed over to a woman.
Darya Trepova has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for killing a bomb in St Petersburg in 2023.
Last September, Rossinskaya was added to Russia's registry of “extremists and terrorists” along with many individuals and groups that publicly criticized the war, trying to raise funds for Ukraine or help those affected by the battle.
The Russian Bar Association reported that criminal cases related to treason, espionage and cooperation with foreign countries have risen sharply since the Russian full invasion.
According to Pervy Otdel, at least 792 people were tried for allegations between the full Russian invasion in February 2022 and late December 2024. More than 530 people have been convicted.
