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Frenchman Vinatier sentenced to three years in foreign agent case
Vinatier was found guilty of failing to perform his duties as a foreign agent and sentenced to three years in prison, he admitted his guilt. In his final statement, the Frenchman quoted lines from Pushkin's poem "If Life Deceives You"
French citizen Laurent Vinatier, who was recognized in Russia as a foreign agent and accused of collecting data and evading duties in connection with the assignment of this status, was sentenced to three years in prison, the prosecutor's office reported. The case was heard in the Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow.
Vinatier was found guilty under Part 3 of Article 330.1 of the Criminal Code (evasion of duties stipulated by the legislation of the Russian Federation on foreign agents). The prosecution requested three years and three months of imprisonment for him, TASS reports. The sentence has not yet entered into force.
In his final remarks, Vinatier read a poem by the poet Alexander Pushkin, “If Life Deceives You,” the agency reports.
"I learned, when I went to the pretrial detention center, <...> Pushkin's poems. "The heart lives in the future <...> Everything is instantaneous, everything will pass; what passes will be sweet," he quoted lines from the work.
Vinatier was detained in Moscow on June 6. At the time of his detention, he was an employee of the Swiss Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, which “is involved in most world conflicts, implementing mediation projects in various parts of Africa, the Middle East, Eurasia and Asia.”
The Frenchman pleaded guilty to both charges: failure to perform the duties of a foreign agent and collection of data on Russia's military activities. In the latter case, according to the FSB, he contacted numerous political scientists, sociologists, economists, military experts and civil servants during visits to Moscow and collected military and military-technical information. The Frenchman could then pass it on to foreign intelligence services to the detriment of Russia's security, the agency believes.
Also, according to the investigation, Vinatier failed to fulfill his obligation to submit documents required for inclusion in the register of foreign agents for several years. The Ministry of Justice added the French citizen there in June 2024.