The Moscow City Court sentenced Georgy Pirogov to 23 years in a strict-regime colony, convicting him of high treason. The verdict was handed down in mid-July, with Mediazona first reporting it, citing a source familiar with the decision. The FSB's public relations center later confirmed the information.
According to the FSB, after the start of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, Pirogov moved to Poland, where he contacted a representative of Polish intelligence and was tasked with gathering classified information. The security service claims he passed data on advanced weapons and missile systems used by the Russian army in the war against Ukraine. Investigators allege Pirogov used contacts among Russian defense industry workers and collected personal data of individuals with access to state secrets, aiming to recruit them "into activities against the security" of Russia.
The FSB also stated that Pirogov transferred cryptocurrency to support the Ukrainian army, purchased equipment, and arranged its delivery from Poland to Ukraine.
The circumstances of Pirogov's detention and his return to Russia remain unknown. According to Mediazona and Current Time, Pirogov moved to Georgia in 2022, where he worked as an industrial climber. In summer 2024, he went on a work trip to the Uzbek city of Kungrad and stopped communicating. In July 2024, his car was found in Nukus, and it later became known that Pirogov was in Russia: the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow ordered his detention in the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial facility. TASS published video from an interrogation in which Pirogov agrees that he cooperated with Polish intelligence and contacted them via Telegram.
In 2023, Russia increased the maximum penalty for high treason to life imprisonment, but Pirogov's sentence exceeds the previous maximum of 20 years. Meduza notes that sentences above the previous cap have been handed down before, including to journalist Ivan Safronov, who received 22 years in a strict-regime colony.