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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Andrew Roth

‘Spymania’ grips Russian security services amid sharp rise in treason cases

The St Petersburg city court
The St Petersburg city court after a hearing in the case of Siberian physicist Anatoly Maslov, arrested in 2022 on suspicion of treason. The arrest has led to a rare backlash among the scientific community. Photograph: Anton Vaganov/Reuters

As Russia’s war in Ukraine has grown into an existential conflict for the Kremlin over the past 15 months, its search for internal enemies has intensified, with a sharp rise in treason cases that experts have equated to a “spymania”.

While many of the treason cases focus on those allegedly fighting for or aiding Ukraine, others have burrowed into seemingly loyal state institutions, such as the scientific research centres that helped research the very weaponry that Russia is using to strike Ukraine.

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