Russian student sentenced to 9 years for ‘treason’ after donating $30 to Ukraine

A court in the Siberian city of Tomsk sentenced a 21-year-old student who donated money to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) to nine years in prison for “treason”, independent news outlet Mediazona reported on Thursday.

While the court handed Tatyana Laletina, a student and artist from Tomsk, her sentence on 28 June, treason cases in Russia are held behind closed doors, which means that information about verdicts and sentences can often take months to get out.

Laletina was detained in February in her flat in Tomsk, one of her friends who wished to remain anonymous told Mediazona. Independent media outlet Govorit NeMoskva quoted a letter from Laletina on Friday, in which she said she had sent $10 to the AFU on 24 February 2022, the day Russia invaded Ukraine, and another $20 in April of the same year.

Convictions for treason in Russia are punishable by between 12–20 years in prison, but Laletina received a relatively lenient sentence. “I went back to my cell and rejoiced — only 9 years!” Laletina told her friend in a letter after the sentencing, Govorit NeMoskva reported. It is not known whether she pleaded guilty or not to the charges, Mediazona noted.

In prison, Laletina keeps a journal where she continues to draw, according to Govorit NeMoskva. “When all this horror is over, I can reread my thoughts and refresh my memory,” she wrote in the letter to her friend, adding “these days, my story is just an everyday occurrence.”