The court received a case of state secrets against a transgender girl who worked for the FSB before her transition; she tried to leave the country

A criminal case against transgender girl Katerina Myers for violating requirements for the protection of state secrets (Part 1 of Article 283.2 of the Criminal Code) was received by the Moscow Regional Court. As Myers herself told Mediazona, he will be considered at a closed meeting and in a special manner, since she admitted guilt.

The date for the consideration of the case on the merits has not yet been set. Now Myers is under recognizance not to leave the place.

“Our goal is to get the minimum punishment, because formally there is an offense. We are counting on a fine,” said the girl’s lawyer, Konstantin Erokhin. Neither Myers herself nor her lawyer can share details of the case, as they signed a non-disclosure agreement.

“I can only talk about events that are already known and our attitude towards them. It is known that there is an attempt to illegally cross the state border by a person who once had access to state secrets. We do not dispute the event itself, that is, the attempt to travel abroad,” the lawyer noted.

He explained the defense’s position as follows: “Our subjective attitude to what happened is this: Katerina assumed that due to the successful change of identity, the obligation [not to travel abroad] seemed to have disappeared. I can say that really psychologically in such cases a person simply tries to get away from the personality that was and returns to his own identity. This is done to make a person feel like himself. That is, the person no longer associated himself with his past self.”

According to him, he will try to explain to the court that Myers had already become “a completely new person and did not think that the old restrictions applied.”

The girl herself added in a conversation with Mediazona that she tried to leave the country because of the threats she received: “Our goal is, first of all, to show the court that my attempt to leave was due to the incoming threats to take my life, fear for your life and health. However, we want to show that I am a worthy representative of society and a law-abiding citizen, that I am a girl. This is exactly what we want to show to the court and society in order to gain respect, recognition and leniency. Show that I work hard on myself.”

In December 2022, Katerina Myers tried to leave Russia, but the FSB did not let her out of the country, citing the fact that she was considered a carrier of state secrets and could not leave the country until 2026. Before the transition, Katerina Myers served in the FSB, whose employees are subject to restrictions on leaving the country.

The article under which the case was opened against Myers provides for a penalty of a fine of 200 thousand rubles to three years in prison.