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The Central District Military Court in Yekaterinburg, a major city in the Urals, has sentenced officer Yevgeny Alakayev to 18 years in prison on charges of treason (Article 275 of the Criminal Code) and the unlawful acquisition and dissemination of information constituting a state secret (subparagraph “d” part 2 Article 283.1 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by the project “Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial.”
Alakayev must spend the first five years in prison, and serve the remainder of his sentence in a high-security penal colony.
The verdict was delivered on 24 June. The proceedings were held behind closed doors.
Alakayev, 36, is originally from Moscow. He is an ethnic Ukrainian, a Catholic, and a member of the Russian Association of Classical Scholars. He graduated from the law and history faculties of Moscow State University, as well as from the adjunctura (military graduate programme) of the Military University in Moscow specialising in sociology.
Since December 2021, Alakayev served in the Military-Political Directorate of the Central Military District in Yekaterinburg as deputy commander of a training motor rifle battalion for military-political work. According to witnesses in his case, his duties were limited to liaising with the Russian Geographical Society and cultural organisations. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Alakayev openly spoke out among colleagues against the invasion.
According to the investigation, in September 2023 the officer unlawfully photographed a classified document about the deaths of Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh on 20 September that year and sent it to his mother and an acquaintance, a priest from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Konstantin Mironov.
On 4 October 2023, Alakayev’s flat was searched. Witnesses say security officers beat the officer and took him away. For more than a month he was held under armed guard at a military commandant’s office without being charged. The case against him was only initiated on 8 November, and the next day a court ordered him into custody.
Initially, Alakayev was charged only with the acquisition and dissemination of information constituting a state secret. In March 2024, the treason charge was added. Investigators alleged that the officer had transmitted classified information about the course of the war in Ukraine to the priest, who they claimed was cooperating with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
After his arrest, Alakayev initially gave confessions, but later denied his guilt. He insists that the prosecution is politically motivated. According to the officer, the document he photographed was not marked as classified, and he sent it to his mother because he wanted to share his feelings over the loss of a close acquaintance. Alakayev had previously wanted to go to Nagorno-Karabakh himself.
The priest to whom he sent the document is also described by the officer as a close acquaintance. Alakayev said he discussed a wide range of topics with him and shared personal matters in the context of confession. The priest lived in Italy, and they communicated via Telegram. Among other things, they discussed the war in Ukraine and criticised the Russian authorities.
“Memorial” has recognised Alakayev as a political prisoner. Human rights defenders note that information about the deaths of Russian peacekeepers had already been reported in the media at the time the officer photographed the document, and that any connection between the priest and the SBU has not been substantiated. They also believe that the case files do not prove that Alakayev “disclosed information constituting a state secret that became known to him through his service to a representative of a foreign State.”
“The prosecution of the officer is clearly politically motivated. He openly opposed the war and criticised the Russian authorities, a point that investigators constantly emphasise. Prior to the initiation of the case, Alakayev was under surveillance, and hidden cameras were installed in his flat,” says Memorial.