FSB opens treason case against Pavel Andreev 

FSB has had a busy day in northwest Russia and in Siberia. Searches of apartments of journalists and human rights activists were carried out on Tuesday in Syktyvkar, Petrozavodsk, Kaliningrad and Irkutsk.

It all seems to be connected with an investigation launched by FSB against Pavel Andreev, a native of the Komi Republic, today living in exile. 

Andreev has been in the centre of the Komi Memorial Human Rights Commission, the news online 7x7 and the independent cultural Revolt Centre. The latter was raided by heavily armed and masked FSB officers in the morning of July 8th in Syktyvkar, the capital of the Komi Republic. 

A video released by the FSB shows how documents and money are "discovered" and how the centre has decorated a wall with the alternative flag of the Komi Republic, featuring a Nordic cross. In another sequence of the film, flags of Canada and the USA is shown. 

According to 7x7, the news online co-founded by Andreev in 2010, searches took place in 12 regions across Russia. Among the journalists interrogated and searched by the security forces were SOTAvision journalist Ekaterina Tkacheva in Kaliningrad and independent journalist Valeri Potashov in Petrozavodsk, the Russian edition of Barents Observer reported earlier in the day. 

Potashov has among others, contributed to Novaya Gazeta. Potashov wrote on Facebook that his apartment was searched by order of the Syktyvkar City Court.

News outlet Sota on Telegram refers to a source saying at least five searches were carried out against people that have participated in seminars arranged by Revolt Center.

Other searches were conducted at the homes of human rights activists Irina Protasova and Olga Vasilyeva, who defend the rights of prisoners, 7x7 reported. 

Ties with NATO countries 

State-owned information agency TASS quotes a press release from FSB with the manufactured claims against Andreev. 

“As a result of operational investigative measures, it was revealed that since 2019, Andreev had maintained secret ties with agents of NATO countries and organizations that foreign intelligence services use to cover up their intelligence and subversive activities in Russia,” the FSB said.

Pavel Andreev declined to comment on the case when contacted by the Barents Observer. Pavel today lives in France. 

FSB confirmed that investigative and operational actions were carried out in 12 regions of Russia in connection with the case against Pavel Andreev. 

Wave of treason cases

Before the full-scale war against Ukraine, treason under Article 275 in the Russian Criminal Code carried a punishment of 12 to 20 years. 

A sub-paragraph was added to the law in 2022, criminalizing any “secret” contact not just with foreign intelligence agencies but also with any foreign or international organization at all that acts in the interests of a foreign intelligence agency.

In 2023, the State Duma introduced life imprisonment as an additional punishment option for Article 275. 

Russian authorities have since the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine opened a unprecedented number of treason cases, for the most targeting political opponents.

According to exiled human lawyer Ivan Pavlov, the founder of “Pervy Otdel” (“First Department”), there used to be two or three sentences a year before 2014.

"In 2015 there where 15 high treason sentences. In 2022 there were 16 and in 2023 it grew to 39 verdicts," Pavlov told the Barents Observer as the FSB opened two separate treason cases in Arkhangelsk in May this year. 

The number of people currently charged with high treason is unknown as it takes up to two years from a case is initiated until a verdict in court is made public. 

Pavel Andreev was member of the Board of Directors of Russian Memorial, the organization that was awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.

In Syktyvkar, the Revolt Center is named after Revolt Pimenov, the Soviet dissident who was exiled to Komi in 1971 for distributing anti-Soviet agitation.