EXPOSED: Russia’s Absurd Politicization of Free Knowledge with a 16-Year Prison Sentence

In a stark reminder of Vladimir Putin’s tightening grip on Russia, the Perm Regional Court has sentenced photographer Grigori Skvortsov to an astonishing 16 years in prison for the so-called crime of “high treason.” His offense? Simply gifting a freely sold Russian book about Soviet-era bunkers to an American journalist. This book, “Secret Soviet Bunkers: Special Urban Fortification between 1930 and 1960,” by historian Dmitri Yúrkov, is not classified. It is openly available in Russia and even reviewed positively by official state media outlets like Komsomólskaya Pravda and Rossískaya Gazeta. Yet, in today’s Russia under Putin, even innocent acts of...