Now such a sentence can also be given for treason.
From January to December 2025, Russian courts sentenced 100 people to life imprisonment, according to media reports citing data from the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. This figure for the incomplete year, which is almost twice as high as the total for all of 2022, has become a historical record for at least the last twenty years. In 2005 (as well as in 2012), the number of such verdicts was 84, according to judicial statistics.
In 2020, Russian courts issued 66 life sentences, in 2021 - 47, in 2022 - 58, in 2023 - 78, and in 2024 - 79. The total number of such court decisions from 2005 to 2025 amounted to 1,416. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation did not specify which specific articles were used to impose imprisonment in 2025, however, in recent years, against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, life sentences have been handed down for a number of new articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, including treason, organization of sabotage and terrorism, or involvement in the commission of the latter.
Life imprisonment in Russia is currently the harshest form of punishment, not counting the death penalty, which has been under a moratorium since 1997.
Previously, the resource "To Be Precise" calculated, based on data from the Judicial Department of the Supreme Court, that in the first six months of 2025, authorities sentenced 54 people to life imprisonment. This means that in the following five months, this type of punishment was applied to at least 46 Russians.
The share of life sentences among all court verdicts in the first half of the year was 0.025%, which became the maximum since observations began in 2005, analysts noted.
In the first half of 2025, 54% of those sentenced to life imprisonment committed murder under aggravating circumstances (in 2021, this figure was 83%). There was also a noticeable increase in the percentage of cases under articles concerning crimes against public safety (Articles 205–227 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) — almost a third of all those sentenced to life imprisonment were convicted for this.
In Russia, life imprisonment is imposed for particularly serious crimes that threaten life (murder, terrorism, genocide), public health (drug trafficking on a particularly large scale), public safety (terrorism), the foundations of the constitutional order, as well as crimes against the sexual inviolability of minors. This punishment is applied when the death penalty is not imposed (for example, for women, minors, or men over 65 years old), as well as for a number of crimes related to terrorism (organization, leadership, financing).
