Moscow Physicist Sentenced to 21 Years for Alleged Espionage and Cyber Attacks

A judge in the Moscow region has sentenced physicist Artyom Khoroshilov to 21 years in a maximum-security facility on charges of treason, according to Russian media reports on Thursday.

Khoroshilov was apprehended in December 2023 for allegedly executing distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on critical infrastructure on behalf of Ukraine, as well as for funding the Ukrainian military and collecting sensitive information regarding the Russian armed forces.

The 34-year-old Khoroshilov admitted to some of the accusations but refuted the state’s allegations concerning his direct involvement in a DDoS attack on Russian Post servers in August 2022, as reported by exiled news organization Mediazona.

In his concluding statement last week, Khoroshilov expressed that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a personal tragedy for him, given that many of his family members reside in the country.

On Thursday, a judge from the Moscow Region Court found him guilty of treason, attacking critical infrastructure, possession of explosives, and planning acts of sabotage.

Prosecutors had sought a 25-year prison term for Khoroshilov.

Cases of treason and other national security-related crimes in Russia are frequently tried in secret.

Khoroshilov is a graduate of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) and has worked as a researcher at the Institute of General Physics under the Russian Academy of Sciences.

His case is part of a broader crackdown under Russia’s treason and espionage laws following the large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Data from the Kirill Parubets Analytical Center indicates that Russian courts handed down 224 verdicts related to treason or espionage in the first half of 2025, marking the highest figure in modern Russian history.

During that timeframe, 232 individuals faced such charges, suggesting that courts delivered nearly two convictions per working day on average.

In contrast, 167 individuals were convicted on treason or espionage charges in 2023, while 143 faced similar outcomes in the first half of 2024. Each of these cases concluded with a guilty verdict and a prison sentence.