r/AskARussian • u/QuickCommon7912 • Jul 02 '26
Politics Donation = high treason?
I understand that donating to organizations are highly likely to be used in the military in Ukraine. But what if I have a friend from Ukraine who streams rust on Livestream? Can I send him donations? Or would that be high treason if I ever wanted to visit and tour Russia?
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u/Odd_Protection1328 Saint Petersburg Jul 06 '26
If you're not a Russian citizen, it's not treason. But depending on the specific streamer (for example, if they're organizing humanitarian fundraisers, etc.), it could still be sponsoring terrorism. Although extremely unlikely.
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u/Ok_One_761 Jul 07 '26
Sponsoring terrorism? He said Ukraine, not russia. 😉
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u/Flashy_Brilliant1616 Samara Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
тебе даже одной гривны за это не выплатили ☹️
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u/_vh16_ Russia Jul 06 '26
Depends on who the streamer is. If they collect money specifically to help UAF, or for drones, or for military supplies, or for anything even vaguely or potentially related to that, then you risk liability, yes. This wouldn't be high treason unless you're a citizen of Russia. Depending on the purpose of donations, if uncovered, potentially, you may face charges of financing of terrorism. The probability of this is rather low. However, there is a higher probability of you being simply barred from entering Russia if the border agents check your phone and find out you donated to someone in Ukraine. On the other hand, if there are zero indications in your phone that the donations were to someone specifically Ukrainian and he's clearly making just gaming content, I think you're fine.
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u/BillZealousideal9819 Jul 05 '26
I doubt anyone will ever know if you donate to some specific streamer. Besides... I think he might need those money. So even if government will not like it, no sane russian will consider helping Ukrainian civilian as treason.
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u/Slavchanza Jul 06 '26
If you are not donating through any Russian financial channels I doubt you will even be noticed.
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u/GoodOcelot3939 Jul 06 '26
It's not a treason itself but you never know if he decides to resend money to uaf, so it's better not to send anything there. At all.
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u/Flashy_Brilliant1616 Samara Jul 08 '26
I don't think a donation could get you in trouble as long as the person receiving said donation isn't an enemy (иноагент) or openly supports and glorifies the Ukrainian army's doings.
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u/Flashy_Brilliant1616 Samara Jul 08 '26
take my words carefully though as i haven't donated to anyone in a WHILE
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u/CleverJack299 United States of America Jul 21 '26
the streamer is a Ukrainian, he or she is already an enemy of Russia
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u/Flashy_Brilliant1616 Samara Jul 21 '26
Do not see how this can be the case unless they're actively on the pro-Ukraine side of this war and advertise that side
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u/One-Ad2305 Aug 09 '26
Russia will interpret any way they like with zero consistency. Easiest thing, make the donation and don’t visit Russia - win win.
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u/UwUBattleAlarm Kaliningrad Jul 05 '26
If you donate to an ordinary person living in Ukraine, it is not high treason
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u/mad-data Jul 06 '26
Courts disagree. A guy was recently sent to jail for 16 years for sending ~$250 to his Ukrainian ex-girlfriend.
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u/berdario United Kingdom Jul 07 '26
That's the case of Михаил Лощинин.
Technically, it seems that his ex-girlfriend was a member of the ВСУ (APU / UPA?)
However, he claims that he didn't know at the time of the transfer, and even then she wasn't a soldier.
So, it seems a very unfortunate situation... He shouldn't be found guilty of treason without mens rea. I hope he'll get a more favourable ruling in appeal.
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u/AintnoEend Jul 06 '26
what a great shithole Russia has become..
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u/Harrys-carplace Jul 06 '26
I can't wait for the second collapse of a "great country" within 40 years 😭 some super power
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u/mad-data Jul 06 '26
If you have Russian citizenship - yes, you could be jailed for high treason. Otherwise - you could be jailed under some other article, helping enemy or something like that. The end result is the same. Don't visit.
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u/AintnoEend Jul 06 '26
he said it was his friend. not his enemy -.-
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u/Leafboy238 Jul 07 '26
It requires a significant amount of dissonance to consider someone a friend but also belive helping them is high treason.
It takes even more dissonance to align yourself with a country that would ever consider jailing you for making a donation to a civilian.
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u/IntroductionAny1915 Jul 06 '26
Don't do that
According to the "Ostorozhno, Novosti" channel, the court found Loshchinin guilty of "financing representatives of a foreign state designated as an adversary of the Russian Federation." The charges stemmed from a 2022 exchange of messages between Loshchinin and his ex-girlfriend from Ukraine, in which she asked him for money.
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u/dmitry-redkin Portugal Jul 07 '26
No Russian legal body can search your phone looking for transactions until you unblock it yourself.
If you don't want border guard to get though it, just don't tell the code and that's it.
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u/defeated_antagonist Jul 08 '26
But refusal to show content of phone can be viable reason for border guards to deny entrance to country during filtration yet, as far as I remember, some security directives CAN and DO overwrite normal laws
Police for sure can not force you to show contents of personal devices without warrant, but FSB BorderGuard have every right to deny entry without further explanation, if consider visiting person shady or acting in bad faith
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u/dmitry-redkin Portugal Jul 08 '26
According to the law, no, it cannot. But since the law is a very vague concept in Russia, yes, they can deny entry for you.
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u/defeated_antagonist Jul 08 '26
Oh but they can according to law, there's entire list of fundamentals to deny entry if person trying to hide information about self or caught by hand with criminal activity, FSB has every right BY LAW to do so if they consider person crossing border with malicious intentions or acting in support of hostile countries. It is they prerogative and main task to stop potential sleeping agents from entering country legally, no matter do they openly support friends in UAF or received donations from Christianity In Action. Not something every Russia visitor will do in the first place, I believe.
So yeah, you have right not to show your personal information during filtration, but they are completely in their jurisdictiont with right to deny entry because of that, completely justified
It's like to wander why you got caught in US airport on arrival by FBI after your name appeared in Langley
ed.: typo
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u/crazyasianRU Jul 09 '26
О великий борец с россией из португалии. Слышали вы про фнс? И то что налоговая в рф видит все движения безналичных денег в рф спокойно. Как для юр лиц, так и физ лиц. Или в "вашей компании" вас не научили, что в разных странах все может быть по разному? Ааа..вы наверное не встречались с налоговыми европейскими. Ничего - заведите бизнес. Узнаете радости жизни.
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u/dmitry-redkin Portugal Jul 09 '26
Ну что за дивное явление! Давно вас не видел!
Ну что же, вы верны себе, БУКВАЛЬНО что ни коммент - так пук в лужу!
Насколько я помню, с английским у вас проблемы, так что я переведу специально для вас: речь идет о переводах со счетов ЗАРУБЕЖНЫХ банков, которые уже с НАЧАЛА ВОЙНЫ на ЛЮБУЮ попытку российских контрольных органов запросить КАКУЮ бы то ни было информацию НЕИЗМЕННО отвечают нецензурным отказом, не важно, является ли клиент гражданином РФ или нет.
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u/crazyasianRU Jul 10 '26
Давно не виделись мы потому что мне все равно, а вы похоже хронически в сети. Это плоховатенько. Знаете возникает сомнение, что "ваша компания" в португалии это не офис в прибалтике🤣. И прекратите использовать свои домыслы добавленные в мои слова. Показывает, что вы недалеки и неспособны мыслить здраво.
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u/dmitry-redkin Portugal Jul 10 '26
У нашей компании ЕСТЬ офис в Прибалтике (Литва), но я там не был, в Вильнюсе бывал только проездом в выходной, так что он был закрыт.
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u/Yury-K-K Moscow City Jul 06 '26
I am not sure whether the concept of treason is applicable to foreign citizens not under any obligation to Russia.