The Russian flag waves atop the Russian Defence Ministry building in Moscow, 25 June 2023. Photo: EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV

A Moscow court has found a married Russian couple guilty of treason after the pair was accused of photographing the exteriors of several buildings belonging to the Russian Defence Ministry, independent news outlet Mediazona reported on Tuesday.

According to the prosecution, Valeria Yegorova, 38, and her husband Pavel Korotich, 42, were paid $240 (€216) in cryptocurrency by a “curator” from Ukrainian intelligence to “covertly photograph and videotape the facades of [Defence Ministry] buildings, fences, and signs”, as well as the employees on duty.

In addition to treason, Yegorova, who the prosecution says was primarily responsible for taking photographs, was found guilty of money laundering and drug possession, after officials discovered 0.3 grams of amphetamine in her possession.

Yegorova was fined 100,000 rubles (€1,050) and sentenced to 17 years in prison. Korotich, accused of surveying the perimeter and driving Yegorova, received a 15‑year sentence, according to a press release from the Moscow City Prosecutor’s Office.

The couple have been in pre-trial detention since 1 March, although the details of their arrest are not known, Mediazona reported.

Treason and espionage cases in Russia have soared since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with dozens of people imprisoned in closed-door trials. In one of the most notable cases, Nadezhda Rossinskaya, a volunteer who helped Ukrainian refugees in the Russian border region of Belgorod, was sentenced to 22 years in prison for treason.