The key facts
- The appeal upheld the 13-year general-regime colony sentence imposed by the Krasnodar Regional Court in April 2026
- According to the investigation, the woman collected and passed information about military facilities and Black Sea Fleet ships in Novorossiysk, Sochi, and Sevastopol
- The activity was uncovered by officers of the regional FSB directorate; the convicted woman did not plead guilty
Appeal Upholds Verdict
The Third Appellate Court of General Jurisdiction has upheld the verdict against a 63-year-old resident of Novorossiysk convicted of passing information about Black Sea Fleet ships to Ukrainian intelligence services: she will spend 13 years in a general-regime penal colony. This was reported by the court's press service, writes Life.ru.
What the Defense Challenged and What the Court Established
The defense sought a review of the decision issued by the Krasnodar Regional Court in April 2026: the lawyers challenged the classification of the crime and considered the punishment excessively harsh. The appellate instance found no grounds for leniency. 'The Judicial Panel for Criminal Cases found no grounds for softening the imposed sentence,' the appellate court reported.
Circumstances of the Case
According to the court, the woman worked as a cook on a floating crane and planned to move permanently to the United States. To that end, she contacted an organization controlled by the Security Service of Ukraine and began carrying out tasks on behalf of its representatives. As the investigation established, the convicted woman collected and passed to her handlers information about Russian military facilities and Black Sea Fleet ships in Novorossiysk, Sochi, and Sevastopol; the activity was uncovered by officers of the regional FSB directorate.
The Convicted Woman's Position and the Classification
During the initial proceedings, the woman confirmed that she had committed the actions in question but did not plead guilty. The Krasnodar Regional Court qualified them as high treason under Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code and sentenced her to 13 years of imprisonment followed by one year of restrictions on freedom of movement.
Similar Cases
Life.ru also recalls another verdict: the First Western District Military Court previously sentenced a Russian woman to 13 years of imprisonment for high treason in the form of espionage and complicity in terrorist activity. According to the FSB directorate for Saratov Region, she collected for Ukrainian intelligence services information about the residential addresses of high-ranking Russian military personnel.
