FSB's New Treason Trap

Six months after Russia launched War on Ukraine, lawmakers added Article 275.1 to the Criminal Code:  a lighter version of treason criminalizing “confidential cooperation” with foreigners or foreign organizations. The law sets prison terms ranging from three to eight years.

The first defendant, former prison service employee Pavel Pishchulin, was sentenced to five years in prison for corresponding with an undercover FSB officer posing as a Ukrainian. According to the independent outlet Mediazona, since then, at least some of the 101 cases filed so far under the new article rely on similar sting operations by Russian security agencies.

Pishchulin, 39, from the city of Penza, was arrested in October 2022. By then, he had twice worked for the Federal Penitentiary Service, faced three separate criminal cases, fathered four children, appeared in a web series about a prison colony, and even made a failed bid for local office. He told investigators he had been drinking heavily in March 2022, distressed over the invasion and worried about his family. The next morning, he said, he discovered that he had searched online for Ukraine’s security service and tried calling its numbers. Penza FSB officers logged the calls.

In April, a man identifying himself as “Serhiy Stakhiv” from Ukraine’s SBU security service phoned Pishchulin. Pishchulin says he immediately suspected an FSB sting. In June, another caller with a Ukrainian number asked for his postal address and began corresponding with him. Court records later revealed the “Ukrainian” was actually an FSB officer named Biryuzov, working under cover in an official operation. Pishchulin began sending emails to him. Messages cited in the verdict show the supposed SBU contacts discussing a coming counteroffensive and alleged plans for “armed actions in Penza.” In response, Pishchulin proposed cross-border raids, offered to connect specialists with the Legion Svoboda Rossii (Freedom of Russia Legion), an anti-Kremlin unit fighting alongside Ukraine, and asked for direct contacts inside the SBU.

He also acknowledged sending photos of cars parked outside the Penza FSB building. In September, he twice emailed what he called a plan to “end the war in Ukraine, and destroy Putin’s organized criminal group,” signing off “Glory to Ukraine.” Pishchulin was detained on October 17, and sent to Moscow’s Lefortovo jail. His trial began in February 2024. The court ruled the FSB had not entrapped him, saying it already possessed evidence of his intent to cooperate with Ukraine’s security service. He was sentenced to five years.

Mediazona reports that overt FSB provocations are common in such cases. In another case, Ivan Tolpygin of Oryol received four years after allegedly initiating contact with a Ukrainian operative who turned out to be an FSB agent. Lawyers from the Perviy Otdel (First Department), a human rights group specializing in treason cases, estimate that more than half of the new “confidential cooperation” prosecutions may stem from FSB operations. Under the law, prosecutors do not need to prove the suspect passed classified material; simply agreeing to cooperate can be enough. Even for full treason under Article 275, the statute allows for conviction based on “other assistance” deemed hostile to Russia, meaning the line between the two articles is blurry and largely determined by security agencies.

Public records show Russians accused under Article 275.1 for contacting the Latvian embassy, calling a Norwegian consulate, or offering anti-Russian propaganda to someone they believed represented Britain. A St. Petersburg businessman was arrested for wanting to work “confidentially” with China. But the majority of cases, like Pishchulin’s, involve Ukraine. Some center on alleged contacts with the Legion Svoboda Rossii. One arrestee told Mediazona she filled out an online questionnaire after the Legion offered to help her get a visa to Europe, only to be detained later. Another case targeted a Barnaul woman accused of sending a social-media link to a supposed Legion representative who asked her to find someone willing to commit an attack.

One of the most striking cases involves Nika Novak, a journalist in Chita, sentenced to four years for “confidential cooperation” with the regional desk of U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The court seized her earnings as “criminal proceeds.” She remains the only known journalist convicted under the statute for working with a foreign media outlet. In May, authorities in Kaliningrad arrested  defense lawyer Maria Bonzler, the first human-rights attorney charged under the new law.

The caseload is expanding rapidly. Courts received 56 Article 275.1 cases in all of 2024 and 35 in just the first seven months of 2025. Because almost all such trials involve classified information, Russian courts rarely publish the verdicts. Even the versions that are available omit large sections citing state secrets.