The Memorial Human Rights Center has designated Romanian national Adrian-David Kercho a political prisoner; he is currently serving a 15-year sentence in a maximum-security penal colony for espionage on behalf of Ukraine. The Krasnodar Regional Court handed down the verdict in March 2026, and an appeal in June upheld both the sentence and the criminal classification. Human rights defenders consider the case politically motivated and are calling for his release.

Kercho was detained on November 28, 2024, in Abkhazia, where he had traveled to visit a girlfriend he met online. According to Memorial, the couple planned to marry and then move to the UK, where Kercho resided. On December 13, he was handed over to Russian security forces.

Initially, the Abkhaz version of the case differed from the one that later emerged in the Russian court. Abkhaz security officials claimed Kercho was collaborating with Ukrainian intelligence and was supposed to use a drone to film military installations in Abkhazia. Kercho later stated that he was forced to record a confession based on a pre-written script; he said he was threatened with criminal prosecution if he refused.

After being transferred to Russia, Kercho spent several months in a special detention center in Sochi. Citing his account, Memorial reports that he was repeatedly charged with administrative offenses and subjected to repeated periods of detention. Kercho claims he was tortured in January 2025 in an attempt to force a confession of espionage. He says that in April, he was taken from the detention center and filmed in a staged video of a new "arrest" near an air defense complex, after which he was transported to Krasnodar. A different version of events has emerged in the Russian criminal case. According to a statement by the Krasnodar Regional Court, Kercho initiated contact with an officer from Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) in November 2024. He allegedly expressed a desire to join the "British Legion," whereupon he was offered safe passage out of Russia in exchange for information on Russian military installations. According to the court, on November 12, Kercho used a quadcopter to obtain coordinates and other details regarding the air defense system in Sochi and transmitted this information via a messaging app.

However, a later statement from the FSB claims that the collection of air defense data actually took place in August 2024. The agency asserts that Kercho was in the Krasnodar Territory at the time and was acting on instructions from Ukrainian intelligence services.

Memorial also points out another inconsistency: in November—when Kercho allegedly received the assignment from the Ukrainian intelligence officer—he was not in Russia, but in Abkhazia. In a video recorded there, he spoke of an offer to help him leave Abkhazia specifically, in exchange for information on military facilities in that republic.

Human rights defenders also argue that the charges rely heavily on a confession that Kercho claims was obtained under torture. Memorial states that the prosecution's version of events has changed repeatedly and contains internal contradictions; consequently, the organization questions whether the alleged crime actually occurred and demands Kercho’s release.