Russia using high-treason charge to root out perceived internal enemies

High treason,acharge used liberallyby kings and queens in the Middle Ages,is being vigorously pursued in modern Russiato root out perceived internal enemies.

"It exploded in 2014,"said Ivan Pavlov, a defence lawyer based in St. Petersburg, Russia.

At least 15 people were convicted of state treason that year, "triple the average number of previous years," Pavlov said.

"And we expect the numbers in 2015 to show the same."

Russia is fighting a secret warwithin its own borders. Amid the already paranoid and militaristic mood that exists inside Russia today, security services are tracking and swooping down on those they consider traitors.

In November 2012, following anti-government protests,President Vladimir Putinstrengthened and broadened thecriminal code provisions governing treason and espionage at the urging of the FSB, the country's security service. With the amendments, high treasonincludes any"financial, material, technical, advisory or any other support given to a foreign country or to international or foreign organizations engaged in activities against the security of the Russian Federation."

Human Rights Watch and other critics say the amendments can be broadly interpreted and used as a tool to "justify close surveillance of NGOs and activistsand could also be used to open a criminal case as a way of paralyzing a critic or political adversary."

The amended criminal code also expandedthe definition of state secrets and who could be subject toprosecution.

They (thestate) use all their resources to shut down information about these cases so that nobodywill know.-Ivan Pavlov, defence lawyer

Treason cases are argued in closed courts with much evidence hidden under the coverof the broad designation of "state secrets."

"They (the state) use all their resources to shut down information about these cases so that nobody will know,"said Pavlov.

"They consider independent lawyers who take these casesa point of tension. We expect some actions against us. We have to be ready for them."

Lawyers denied access to evidence

Pavlov is defending Gennady Kravtsov, who was convicted of state treason last Septemberand sentenced to 14 years in a penal colony. Five years after he retired from his job as a radio and ITengineerin themilitaryintelligence service, he sent out feelers for new work. Discouraged with opportunities in Russia, he emailed letters of inquiry tothe Ministry of Defence in Belarusand laterto a civiliantelecommunications company in Sweden. He received no job offers.

Those emailsattracted the attention ofthe FSB, whoraidedKravtsov'shome, without a warrant, and took computers and flash drives,according toKravtsov's wife,AllaTerikhova. Kravtsov co-operated as the FSB watched him for another year. Then one morning, he was seizedand put in detention.

"He went to buy milk. They attacked him from behind, threw him on the ground, twisted his armsand started to beat him,"Terikhova said.

They attacked himfrom behind, threw him on the ground, twisted his armsand started to beat him.- AllaTerikhova,wife of Gennady Kravtsov

"Why did they do all this? He knew FSB was watching him. They could have just shown him their documents, and he could calmly follow them. Was it to show they'd captured a spy?"

In a Moscow court, Pavlov and fellow lawyer Evgeny Smirnov asked to see the secretevidence against their client. They were refused. The lawyers cannotspecificallyquote from the letters Kravtsovsent abroad, becausethey are considered "secret," butPavlov insists his client "didn'tshare any secret informationin his letter or after."

The FSB refused CBC's request for an interview on this case or any other treason prosecutions.

"He wasn't an operative. He was just an engineer, an IT engineer,"saidPavlov. "The message they sentis that nobody from ex-special services can communicate with any foreign entities. Ifthey do, they will be punished."

'Everything he said they flipped'

Terikhova is bitter and angry. She's left with two small childrento raise alone. Kravtsov will serve his time in a penal colony 500 kmfrom Moscow. Terikhovawill be allowed two weekend visitsa year.

"It's like a witch hunt to show we have spies, [that] we have internal and external enemies," she said.

She says her husband co-operated fully with the FSB andhad several meetings with agents. He was sure their inquiries would come to nothing, until the day he was seized.

Vladimir Putin's War on Traitors

9 years ago

Duration 11:46

High treason is being vigorously pursued in Russia to root out perceived enemies of the state. Susan Ormiston meets a team of lawyers who are taking on the difficult cases.

"Everything he said they flipped,"Terikhova said. "They needed his case to show that we have a spy, that there is somebodywho will sell his motherland."

In a February speech to the FSB, RussianPresident Vladimir Putin warned of increasing threats to destabilize Russia internally.

• Ex-intelligence employee gets 14 years in prison
• UN slams Ukraine Russia-backed rebels
• Russia expands treason law

"Foreign intelligence services have stepped up their activity in Russia. Ithas been convincingly confirmed over the last year," he said.

More than 400 operatives had been apprehended, said Putin, as he urged the security services to keep up vigilance.

"We need to cut off all channels of access to confidential information," he said.

Pavlov believes the Kremlin is creating a climate in which rights and due process can be easily trampled on.

"The government needs some examples of enemies of the people. Everyone understands who is the external enemy:the West, Ukraine. People need to know who is the internal enemy, and that's why government uses the criminal court and the special article about high treason."

Canada's last treason conviction in 1947

Canada has pursued few cases of treason. The last conviction was in 1947. Mtis leaderLouis Riel, executed in Regina in 1885, is probably Canada's most well-known case. In the U.K., the last prosecution for treason was in 1945.

But in Russia, it's becomingincreasingly common.

In January 2015, Pavlov founded his own legal swat team.A group of young lawyers and journalists based in St. Petersburg who call themselves Team 29afterArticle 29 in Russia's 1993 constitution, which guarantees freedom of information.

Daria Sukhikh is an earnestand determined 33-year-old lawyer with Team 29.

"We got a brilliant law, the Freedom of Information Act,"she said proudly. "It's very progressive."

"[But] we have a problem with it: many rights we have in lawdon't exist in real life. Good law, bad practise."

Taking on the government isn't popular or profitable. The Team 29 lawyers sometimes work without a salaryand rack up more losses than wins.

"Of course, it is very hard work,because courts and the judge are afraid to make decisions against the government," saidSukhikh.

"I get frustrated when I know I have the law on my side, and I'm defeated anyway. Butwe think we should continue our work because without it, nobody will show the government that this right is important for us."

'How to surviveand stay free'

Team 29 has a flash new website highlighting the cases they've taken on.

Like the case against Svetlana Davydova, a mother of seven children who was opposed to Russia's intervention in Ukraine, who was jailed in January 2015. She had phoned the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow in April 2014to report thatshe believed Russian troops stationed near her homecould be on their way to Ukraine, where pro-Russia separatists were clashing with Ukrainian forces.

After vocalprotests from some media and high-profile public figures, and a legal defence launched by Team 29, she was released.

Everybody understands that in the21stcentury, it's impossible to arrest a librarian for keeping books.-Anna Pavlukova, daughter of librarian charged with distributing extremist literature

Or the charges against Natalya Sharina, director of the Library of Ukrainian Literature in Moscow, accused of distributing "extremist"literature that incites hatred against Russians booksby Ukrainian nationalists, some of them banned in Russia.For five months she's beenunder house arrest, forbidden from leaving her apartment or communicating with anyone other than her husband,daughter and son-in-law. Charges of embezzlement will be added this week. Sharina denies all charges against her.

"They shame my country; they show the world that we act like people in the Middle Ages," said herdaughter, Anna Pavlukova. "Everybody understands that in the 21stcentury, it's impossible to arrest a librarian for keeping books."

Team 29 also acts like a public advocate, a novel phenomenon in Russia, posting primers on howto protect oneself.

There's a clickable guide on how to act during interrogation, how to behave during a home searchand themost popular post: "what to do when they come for you."

"We tell themfirst, that the FSB can become interested in them at any moment. Thenwe try to tell them they have the right to keep silent, to not tell anyoneand not to work with a state lawyer because state lawyers sometimes work along with officers of the FSB," saidNikolayOvchinnikov, a journalist who joined Team 29.

"I'm interested in showing peoplehow to surviveand stay free,"Ovchinnikov said.

Fightinginterrogations, searches and secrecy has become afull time job for the lawyers of Team 29. Recently, Pavlov and Smirnov were able to convince Russia's Supreme Court to reduce the sentence for Kravtsov from 14to sixyears.

When the ruling came down, Pavlov flashed a thumbs up to Kravtsov's family in court. In their eyes, itwas an admission by the courtthat the evidence againstKravtsovwas unsupportable.

"We wanted to prove he's not guilty," saidPavlov."Of course, we understand with what's happening in Russia,it's not possible, but still, it was the aim."