Belgian held in Russia for over six months on charges of 'treason'
A Belgian-Russian man has been detained in Russia for more than six months on charges of treason and harming national security, after travelling to the country last summer to visit his seriously ill father.
Mikhail Loshchinin, a 48-year-old naturalised Belgian citizen, travelled to St Petersburg in June to see his father, who was recovering from heart surgery.
According to Le Soir, Loshchinin was arrested at the Russian border and has since been held in custody. He is expected to appear before a judge in the city of Pskov, near the Latvian border, on 15 January, where he faces a possible twelve-year prison sentence. His relatives say he was “abducted and tortured without reason”.
Encountering issues at the border
According to family members, Loshchinin attempted to enter Russia using his Russian passport to avoid visa issues. At the Ubylinka border crossing, Russian guards reportedly searched his phone and found contacts in Ukraine, including his sister and an ex-girlfriend. His mother, Olga, said he did not delete his WhatsApp account because he did not consider communicating with friends in Ukraine a crime.
“There was no reason to stop him, so they provoked him at the border,” Olga said. She claims her son was detained for several hours before being misled by border guards and then arrested for allegedly crossing the border illegally.
Loshchinin was initially held for a month in a hotel in Pytalovo before being transferred to a detention centre in the Belgorod region used for Ukrainian prisoners of war. He was later moved to Pskov, where he was accused of “financing a hostile foreign state” after transferring money in 2022 to his Ukrainian ex-girlfriend, who later posted a Ukrainian flag on social media. His family insists he is apolitical.
Russia's definition of treason
Human rights lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov said there was “no good way out” of the case. “Mikhail Loshchinin transferred money to a person in Ukraine. According to Russia, this constitutes a form of treason that has existed for over a decade,” he said.
Smirnov added that Loshchinin’s only realistic chance of release would be through a political exchange. “But how many people have we exchanged in the past 10 years? Probably ten. And how many political prisoners are currently in the country? Around 10,000 to 15,000.”
According to Russian media, Belgian authorities have attempted to intervene, but Russia does not recognise Loshchinin’s Belgian nationality. Consular access has reportedly been denied so far. His family says it is relying on diplomatic efforts to secure his release, while Belgium’s Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs has said it is aware of the case but has provided no further details.
Born in Moscow, Loshchinin left Russia 25 years ago and has lived in Europe since 1999, working in Luxembourg and living in Germany in recent years.
© PHOTO DIMITAR DILKOFF / AFP
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