Russian woman sold secrets of Putin’s tanks to Ukraine for £970 | World news

A Russian woman was found guilty of high treason after selling “blueprints” from the tank factory where she worked to Ukraine.

Victoria Mukhametova showed no emotion when a court in Yekaterinburg in the Russian Urals sentenced her to 12 and a half years in a penal colony.

The 24-year-old handed over “military and technical data” to Ukrainian officials in exchange for 100,000 rubles, or around £980.

She worked as a machine operator at the UralVagon Factory, the world’s largest company producing combat tanks, headquartered in the city of Nizhny Tagil in the Sverdlovsk Oblast.

Mukhametova admitted to selling the plans, which were understood to contain technical drawings.

More than a year has passed since she and her husband were arrested in March 2023 by the FSB security service.

Her husband, Danil Mukhametov, is also being tried separately on similar charges.

A video of their arrest was released, in which she was asked what they planned to do with the money, to which she replied: “Just live.”

When they were detained, FSB agents forcibly pinned him to the ground.

Earlier this year, Russia convicted Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkowicz of espionage after accusing him of collecting classified information about the same defense company.

The American journalist, his newspaper and the US government have denied the espionage allegations. Gershkovich was released on August 1 as part of a major East-West prisoner exchange.

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