A man in Yaroslavl has been sentenced to 14 years in a maximum-security penal colony for photographing the graves of Russian military personnel.
According to the Yaroslavl Regional Court, 48-year-old Nikolai Shcherbakov’s actions were deemed an act of high treason, Caliber.Az reports, citing Russian media.
Prosecutors said the man “systematically” visited a cemetery to photograph the graves of military personnel.
“The court established that since October 2024, defendant Nikolai Shcherbakov had systematically visited a memorial cemetery, where he secretly photographed and recorded video of the burial sites of military personnel. The Yaroslavl resident sent the collected information via a messenger service to representatives of the Ukrainian intelligence services,” the court noted on its website.
It is unknown when and where the Federal Security Service (FSB) detained Shcherbakov.
According to a frame from the detention footage published by the regional court, the investigation began in winter, while the case was submitted to the court in late July, Mediazona reports.
In June 2026, the FSB opened a high-treason case in Russia’s Tomsk Region against three people who were detained for allegedly passing information about Russian military personnel, including those killed, to Ukraine.
That same month, reports said the FSB had decided to tighten surveillance of cemeteries in Sverdlovsk Region after a woman was detained on June 17 for photographing the graves of Russian military personnel. Another woman was detained in Yekaterinburg on June 24 for photographing military graves.
By Bakhtiyar Abbasov
