Russian IT worker sentenced to 15 years for “treason” after returning from abroad to visit family

The Moscow City Court has sentenced Sergey Irin, a former employee of Russian tech giant Yandex, to 15 years in prison on charges of high treason. His “crime” was to transfer $500 to the Ukrainian charity Come Back Alive, Mediazonareports.

According to the court ruling, Irin will serve the first three years of his sentence in a prison facility, after which he will be transferred to a maximum-security penal colony for the remainder of his term. In addition, the court imposed a fine of five million rubles ($62k) — roughly equivalent to two years of his salary. During the sentencing, Irin refused to stand, but he did hold up a sign reading “Putin is a d***head” (Путин ху*ло) for those in the courtroom to see.

On February 27, 2022, three days after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Irin transferred $500 from his Russian bank card to the Ukrainian charity Come Back Alive. He later left Russia, living in Turkey and Sri Lanka. However, in April 2024, the programmer returned to the country to visit relatives and friends in Nizhny Novgorod.

Irin was first detained for swearing in public and sentenced to five days under an administrative charge of petty hooliganism, but upon his release from the detention center, he was immediately taken into custody on charges of high treason. According to Irin, he was interrogated in Nizhny Novgorod with the use of a stun gun before being transferred to the pre-trial detention center in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison.

Even before his most recent sentence was handed down, Irin was recognized by the Memorial organization as a political prisoner. According to their description of the events surrounding his case, the former Yandex employee has been in custody since May 2024.