In Russia, they began to persecute those who once had access to state secrets and recently traveled abroad. Over the past year, 22 such cases have already been opened.

During the year, 22 criminal cases were opened in Russia under the new article on state secrets (283.2 of the Criminal Code), calculated Mediazona . This article was adopted last summer, it prohibits Russians from leaving the country who have ever had access to state secrets. It faces either a fine of 200 to 500 thousand rubles, or up to three years in prison.

According to Mediazona, engineers, scientists, employees of state-owned enterprises, officials and security officials, as well as medical workers and former military men, mainly fall under this article. One of the defendants was a Nizhny Novgorod programmer, who three years ago resigned from the structures of Rosatom. Despite the dismissal, he retained access to state secrets - by law, restrictions on leaving Russia for such employees are in effect for at least five years. After he traveled to Kazakhstan “for tourism purposes” last fall, a criminal case was opened against him.

The publication found out that most often cases under the new article are brought against those who went to Abkhazia. One of these defendants is Anna Tarkhanova, who traveled to the republic in November 2022. Judging by the leaked databases, Tarkhanova used to work at the Solovyov Scientific and Practical Psychoneurological Center in Moscow. “I just went to Abkhazia, to a sanatorium for treatment. Unfortunately, I didn’t even remember that I needed to take permission from the organization where I hadn’t worked for a long time, I changed my occupation, ”she told Mediazone.

According to journalists, Russian courts have already delivered six sentences under the new article on treason. So far, the accused are being punished with fines of up to 250,000 rubles.

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