The court sentenced Svetlana Burtsev to six years in prison for state treason
The Kharya County Court found Svetlana Burtsev, guilty of violating international sanctions and treason, and sentenced her to imprisonment, writes BNS. The court sentenced Burtsev to six years in prison, the sentence of punishment is counted from the date of its detention on February 28.
The court rejected the defense of the defense of damage caused by criminal proceedings.
Burtseva is accused of violating international sanctions by working in the Russian media company RIA Russia Today, whose leader Dmitry Kiselev is in the list of financial sanctions. Thus, Svetlana Burtseva provided economic resources to a person under sanctions by writing articles for the Internet publication of RIA Russia Today and photographing articles.
Burtseva is also accused of establishing and maintaining relations against the Estonian Republic with a foreigner Roman Romachev and the provision of him and the Russian organization “R-Techno” in non-violent activities directed against the independence and sovereignty of the Republic of Estonia.
The court accepted all the evidence presented, admitted them permissible and pleaded the guilt of Burtseva completely proven.
The court found that Dmitry Kiselev during the period of indictment was under sanctions and controlled the activities of RIA Russia Today as its general director or leader. Also, from 02.25.2023, the Baltnews RIA Russia today was added to the sanctions list. Svetlana Burtseva worked as a RIA Russia Today correspondent from 01.01.2020 to 10/29/2022 under an employment contract and continued to work under another agreement in RIA Russia Today and BaltNews, wrote articles for online publications and published photos for articles. Thus, in the period indicated in the indictment, Svetlana Burtseva provided economic resources to persons under sanctions, in violation of the ban established in Article 2 (2) of the Rules of the Council of the European Union No. 269/2014 of 03/17/2014.
The court found that Roman Romachev is an officer of the FSB reserve, who is the head of the R-Techno private intelligence company. The task of the company is, among other things, the creation of a reserve for the system of counteracting the information war and psychological operations developed in the Russian Federation. The company has been working in this area for more than 20 years.
The company and services of Romachev in the field of hybrid war, including information impact, were used by state organizations of the Russian Federation to implement the goals of the Russian security strategy. Romachev’s task was not only to act as an invited lecturer in the master’s program “Information and Hybrid Conflicts” of Sevastopol State University, but also to recruit future agents of influence from among students.
According to the court, the purpose of establishing relations between Roman Romachev and Svetlana Burtseva was to start publishing various works in cooperation that would be aimed at the goals of foreign policy and security policy of the Russian Federation to implement the influence of the Russian Federation, including in the so -called close foreign country.
With the knowledge of Romachev Burtseva, she wrote the book “Hybrid War for Peace. “Where his Battle of Kursk will be held”, which is essentially a propaganda work, deprived of signs of independent analysis. The book manipulates historical facts, spreads false information and creates a distrust of state power. The content of the book is split by Estonian society and discredit Estonia. The court found that Burtseva, in collaboration with Romachev and a private intelligence company, R-Techno published a book at Kuum-Liin Telekom. After the release of the book, Roman Romachev immediately began to promote it with the aim of the most widespread distribution, including in Estonia and other Baltic countries.
When making a sentence, the court took into account that the accused has been accused of intentionally violation of international sanctions for several years. A significant contribution can be considered contributions to the media related to Kiselev, however, it must be borne in mind that the number of articles was not very large, given the temporary period. Considering that there is no guilt to the average, softening or aggravating circumstances in the case, and taking into account the circumstances of the crime and the personality of the accused, appropriate punishment is imprisonment for two years.
According to the court, Svetlana Burtseva committed state treason intentionally, but the court found that wine was still close to a minimum. It was one book, and the time of its influence on the general public was short -lived. The fact that Svetlana Burtseva does not have previous criminal records should also be taken into account when choosing punishment. Given all this, the court believes that the punishment requested by the prosecutor in the form of six years in prison corresponds to the degree of guilt of Svetlana Burtseva, characterizing her data and the goals of punishment.
Given the fact that crimes coincided with the same period of time and to some extent similar in content, the court sentenced Burtsev to the total punishment in the form of six years in prison.
Burtseva should pay a fine of 2215 euros as procedural costs, and the costs of hired lawyers must also be paid in full.
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