Russian justice on Monday sentenced Frenchman Laurent Vinatier to a three-year prison sentence. Detained since June, he is accused of not having registered as a “foreign agent”.
The court decided to “declare Mr. Vinatier guilty” and “sentence him to a prison sentence of three years,” announced judge Natalia Tcheprassova at the end of the trial, according to a journalist from AFP present in the courtroom. The prosecutor had requested earlier Monday three years and three months in prison against the Frenchman.
Laurent Vinatier’s defense had deemed the indictment “extremely severe”, with the authorities accusing him of having failed in his obligation to register under this label even though he was collecting “information in the field of military activities” which could be “used against the security” of Russia.
“Illegal”
“This request is unreasonable and illegal,” insisted his other lawyer Alexeï Sinitsin. The two lawyers had requested that their client be punished with a fine. In the accused’s box, his face drawn, Laurent Vinatier, who wore a light blue shirt, had for his part called for a “lenient and fair judgment”, believing that “imprisonment will affect (it) the living conditions” of his family.
Laurent Vinatier, aged around forty, admitted not having registered as a “foreign agent”, a label used in Russia against critical voices and which imposes heavy administrative obligations, under penalty of criminal sanctions. He claimed to be unaware that this obligation had been introduced into the Penal Code.
The Russian security services (FSB) for their part affirmed in early July that the accused had established “numerous contacts” with Russian political scientists, economists and military experts, as well as with civil servants. “During exchanges with these people, (he) notably collected military and technical information which can be used by foreign intelligence services against the security of Russia,” the FSB declared at the time.
Strained relations with Paris
At the beginning of September, the Frenchman’s pre-trial detention was extended by six months on the first day of his trial, until February 21, 2025. This researcher specializing in the post-Soviet space was employed on Russian soil by the Center for Dialogue humanitarian, a Swiss NGO which mediates in conflicts outside official diplomatic circuits.
“My wife is Russian, my friends are Russian. I lived a Russian life,” he recalled to the judges on Monday, saying he fell in love with Russia twenty years ago, during a trip to Moscow and Saint Petersburg. According to sources interviewed by AFP, the Frenchman had been working for years on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, even before the Russian offensive of February 2022, as part of discreet diplomatic efforts in parallel with those of the States. Until his arrest, he made trips to both countries.
This affair also comes at a time when relations between Moscow and Paris are very tense: Russia is accused of a series of acts of destabilization and disinformation on French territory, while France is criticized for its support for ‘Ukraine.
