Netherlands – The Moscow Times, February 24, 2025
A Russian judge on Monday upheld a three-year prison sentence for French national Laurent Vinatier, one of several Westerners jailed by Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Vinatier, a 48-year-old researcher working for a Swiss conflict mediation NGO, was arrested in Moscow in June and charged with gathering information on Russia’s military without being registered as a “foreign agent,” a crime punishable by up to five years in prison.
In October, a Russian court found him guilty of gathering information on the Russian military and violating the country’s “foreign agent” law, a designation typically applied to Russian nationals.
“The sentence… against Laurent Vinatier is left unchanged,” judge Tatyana Sokolova said after an appeal hearing, according to an AFP correspondent in the court.
