Denis Bushtet, from the town of Spassk-Dalny in Primorsky region, was sentenced on 27 March 2025 to 13 years in a strict regime penal colony on a trumped-up charge of treason.
Bushtet is a lawyer who took part in the Cossack movement and organised Rodnover (Slavic neopagan) circle dances. He was raising two adopted children. During the floods in Primorsky region in 2023 rescued more than 300 dogs that had been left chained up.
Bushtet opposed the war against Ukraine. Memorial reports that this put him at odds with a friend who decided to volunteer to fight in the war. After unsuccessfully trying to change his mind and quarrelling with him, Bushtet shared his concerns with a Ukrainian acquaintance who was also a Rodnover. He sent her photographs of Cossack volunteers and information about where they had been deployed. He was arrested in November 2023. The security services claimed his acquaintance was raising funds for the Ukrainian military and interpreted Bushtet’s message as an instruction to pass on information to the Ukrainian military. He was charged with treason for ‘providing other assistance to a representative of a foreign state in activities directed against the security of the Russian Federation’ (Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code).
Write to Russia: Lawyer Denis Bushtet sentenced to 13 years on trumped up charge of treason
