The Yaroslavl Regional Court sentenced 48-year-old local resident Nikolai Shcherbakov to 14 years in a strict-regime colony. According to the investigation, he is charged with high treason for covertly photographing and filming the burial sites of military personnel at a memorial cemetery. RBC-Ukraine reported this, citing the outlet “Meduza,” and the fact of the verdict was also confirmed by other media outlets referencing the court's press service.
Charges and the investigation's version
As the court's press service stated, since October 2024 Shcherbakov “systematically visited the memorial cemetery,” where he covertly photographed and filmed the burial sites of military personnel. According to the investigation's version, the man passed the information he gathered to representatives of Ukrainian intelligence services. On this basis, he was charged under the high treason article, which led to such a harsh sentence — 14 years in a strict-regime colony.
The first verdict of its kind
The outlet “7×7” notes that this is the first known case of a verdict under the high treason article specifically for filming military graves. The case against the Yaroslavl resident became known in early August. At that time, Dmitry Treshchanin, editor of “MediZone,” reported that in Russia there had been an increase in detentions of people for photographing graves, and some of them were also charged with high treason. According to him, residents of several regions were forced by security forces to apologize on camera after being detained.
Contradictory data
There is an important nuance in the wording of the sources that should be taken into account. A number of outlets call the Yaroslavl decision the “first verdict” for filming a cemetery, however, the broader context shows that detentions and even charges in similar episodes had already been recorded in various regions. Thus, the qualification “first” refers specifically to the handed-down verdict (a completed judicial decision), not to the absence of prior cases at the investigation or detention stage. In addition, the claim about passing data to Ukrainian intelligence services is the investigation's version, conveyed through the court's press service; no independent details confirming the fact of the transfer itself are provided in the available sources. The identification of the defendant (48-year-old Nikolai Shcherbakov) is also given according to court data via “Meduza.”
Context: other high-profile cases
A reminder of related practice: in Russia, three teenagers from the temporarily occupied Melitopol have already been convicted — the boys were charged with “terrorism” and sentenced to between 7 and 8.5 years of imprisonment. Taken together with the Yaroslavl verdict, these cases demonstrate a consistent trend toward harsh sanctions in episodes related to the “military” theme, including, as in this case, the filming of military burial sites.
